JMP Securities Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at JMP Securities from $380.00 to $415.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. JMP Securities’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 5.63% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $387.00 to $449.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Rosenblatt Securities raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $390.00 to $430.00 in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $396.03.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $392.89 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $258.17 and a 1 year high of $408.53. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $362.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $338.41. The company has a market cap of $127.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.19, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,609,486,000 after purchasing an additional 220,900 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,099,564,000 after purchasing an additional 255,060 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $757,321,000 after buying an additional 114,742 shares during the period. 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.