TD Securities Reaffirms Buy Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at TD Securities in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $230.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. TD Securities’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.26% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on PANW. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.02.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $194.48 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $178.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $185.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.57, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $142.01 and a 12-month high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total value of $18,252,574.62. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,629,704.62. This trade represents a 27.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This trade represents a 41.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 568,962 shares of company stock worth $96,933,690. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,712,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541,637 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 6,725,148 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted 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 worth $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,324,387,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,631 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.