Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 0.8% – What’s Next?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price was up 0.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $181.35 and last traded at $178.50. Approximately 1,590,087 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 6,104,424 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.17.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. HSBC downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.77.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.3 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $178.52. The firm has a market cap of $116.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.23, a P/E/G ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. This represents a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 867,734 shares of company stock valued at $161,546,523 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% in the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $79,149,000 after acquiring an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,232,000 after acquiring an additional 7,291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050,173 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.