Bank of America Raises Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $430.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target upped by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $400.00 to $430.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 12.17% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $370.00 price target (up from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $383.36 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $364.32 and a 200-day moving average of $339.39. The stock has a market cap of $124.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.88, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $260.09 and a 52-week high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks shares are set to split on the morning of Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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 directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 in the last quarter. Corporate 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 bought a new stake in 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 3rd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $79,149,000 after purchasing an additional 32,626 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $67,232,000 after purchasing an additional 7,291 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $24,414,000. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% during the second quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 2,695 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $914,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.