Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 0.3% After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) fell 0.3% on Tuesday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $240.00 to $215.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as low as $166.83 and last traded at $170.10. 1,006,784 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 5,889,130 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.64.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on PANW. BTIG Research downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $230.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 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 $18,191,542.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 358,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,353,042.65. The trade was a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after acquiring an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after buying an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $970,736,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after buying an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $112.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $187.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $185.48.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released 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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. On average, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share 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.