Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 0.6% – Still a Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price shot up 0.6% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $172.40 and last traded at $172.37. 592,107 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 5,878,544 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.31.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. StockNews.com cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $455.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.27.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 7.0 %

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $186.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $185.24. The firm has a market cap of $101.68 billion, a PE ratio of 86.52, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,114,786 shares of company stock valued at $200,426,637 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,316,000 after buying an additional 1,619 shares during the last quarter. United Bank grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 6,835 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,336,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,732 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,377,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 144,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $49,424,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 60.1% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 437 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $149,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.