Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.08 EPS

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.08, Briefing.com reports. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $383.36 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $364.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $339.39. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $260.09 and a fifty-two week high of $408.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.92, a PEG ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks’s stock is scheduled to split before the market opens on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total value of $20,698,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,924.82. The trade was a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,994 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,505,142.12. The trade was a 9.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective (up previously from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.03.

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.