Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $225.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on PANW. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BTIG Research lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.85.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $196.40 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $186.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $180.69. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $130.04 and a 1-year high of $207.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,744,323.20. The trade was a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $198,214,409.80. The trade was a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 109.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,202,926 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $764,764,000 after buying an additional 2,197,765 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $388,155,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $333,925,000 after buying an additional 1,213,073 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.