Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Sets New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares reached a new 52-week high on Monday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $410.00 to $450.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $381.18 and last traded at $380.83, with a volume of 157719 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $374.83.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, August 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $376.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.41, for a total value of $64,682.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,746.62. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.41, for a total value of $64,682.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,746.62. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.77, for a total transaction of $11,439,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,187,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $377,373,165.59. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 351,452 shares of company stock worth $118,643,279 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after buying an additional 3,249,594 shares during the period. Axecap Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth $993,000. Wallington Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.7% in the third quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC now owns 39,943 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,653,000 after buying an additional 2,147 shares during the period. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the third quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 5,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,754,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.2% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 13,396 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,579,000 after buying an additional 1,240 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average is $350.47 and its 200 day moving average is $324.94. The company has a market capitalization of $122.46 billion, a PE ratio of 51.88, a P/E/G ratio of 5.43 and a beta of 1.13.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.