Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Earns “Buy” Rating from Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities reissued their buy rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a $235.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the topic of several other research reports. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.27.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $173.18 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $186.72 and its 200 day moving average is $185.38. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $132.50 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The company has a market cap of $114.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.57, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, 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 transaction of $89,532,411.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $198,214,409.80. This represents a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,611,013,000 after buying an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,324,387,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.