Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells $341,440.00 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.44, for a total value of $341,440.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 41,517 shares in the company, valued at $14,175,564.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 2.2 %

PANW stock traded down $8.26 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $359.75. The company had a trading volume of 4,999,238 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,444,848. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $328.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $310.84. The company has a market cap of $116.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $224.64 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The business 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 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. BTIG Research lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $366.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $363.49.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth $1,563,020,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,129,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058,127 shares in the last quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 359.3% in the fourth quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 957,699 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $282,406,000 after purchasing an additional 749,199 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth $177,933,000. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 444,100.0% in the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 444,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $150,520,000 after purchasing an additional 444,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.