Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $450.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on PANW. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $370.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. BNP Paribas began coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Finally, OTR Global reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $383.36 on Thursday. 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 cap of $124.82 billion, a PE ratio of 49.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $364.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $339.89.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks are going to split on the morning of 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.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. Research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,924.82. The trade was a 27.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 over the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 2,606 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $891,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.6% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 64,737 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $22,127,000 after acquiring an additional 5,133 shares during the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at about $5,827,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,152 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $394,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtue Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $578,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.