Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Hits New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Monday after KeyCorp raised their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $435.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $381.18 and last traded at $380.83, with a volume of 157719 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $374.83.

PANW has been the topic of a number of other research reports. UBS Group upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $375.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,055,533.37. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,055,533.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 351,452 shares of company stock valued at $118,643,279 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $312,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,379,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the second quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,110 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $376,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Herbst Group LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Herbst Group LLC now owns 9,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,313,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, First PREMIER Bank boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 48.4% during the third quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 95 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.0 %

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $349.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.19. The stock has a market cap of $122.53 billion, a PE ratio of 55.00, a PEG ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 1.13.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.