Scotiabank Cuts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $200.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price lowered by Scotiabank from $400.00 to $200.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector outperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on PANW. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $210.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $207.50 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, BTIG Research raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $197.50 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.46.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $183.25 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $191.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.89. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $130.04 and a twelve month high of $207.24. The company has a market cap of $120.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results 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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,237,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.9% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 167,220 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $56,689,000 after purchasing an additional 9,260 shares during the last quarter. SouthState Corp lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 64.3% during the second quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 948 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 12.4% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 239,366 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $81,552,000 after purchasing an additional 26,324 shares during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.2% during the second quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 7,882 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,672,000 after buying an additional 730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.8% during the second quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,311 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $444,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.