Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Up 0.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price traded up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $370.00 to $410.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $375.73 and last traded at $373.53. 312,284 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 4,042,742 shares. The stock had previously closed at $373.23.

PANW has been the topic of a number of other reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $373.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total value of $17,755,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total value of $17,755,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,055,533.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 6.0% during the third quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,325 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $453,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 33,893 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,585,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the period. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,793 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,739,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 80,142 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,393,000 after buying an additional 2,622 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $121.80 billion, a PE ratio of 54.26, a P/E/G ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $346.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $321.63.

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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.