Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-two research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirty have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $326.29.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, June 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $380.00 price objective for the company. Daiwa America raised Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Daiwa Capital Markets assumed coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $350.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total value of $42,165,110.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,791,570. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total value of $42,165,110.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at $55,791,570. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 428,391 shares of company stock worth $136,147,317. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,563,020,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 29,086.9% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,057,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $606,854,000 after acquiring an additional 2,050,917 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 83.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,616,803 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $771,643,000 after acquiring an additional 1,187,915 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $8,129,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE lifted its holdings 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 valued at $282,406,000 after acquiring an additional 749,199 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $337.06 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $109.14 billion, a PE ratio of 48.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.17 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $314.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $309.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $201.17 and a 12-month high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.