Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading 1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) rose 1% during mid-day trading on Monday after Berenberg Bank upgraded the stock to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $170.54 and last traded at $169.56. Approximately 4,695,922 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 10,133,215 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.85.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on PANW. Daiwa Securities Group cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $802,100.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 150,250 shares in the company, valued at $24,103,105. This trade represents a 3.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the sale, the director owned 52,500 shares in the company, valued at $8,631,525. This trade represents a 30.17% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 30,356 shares of company stock worth $4,981,575 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,568,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,776 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth $1,415,364,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $147.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.11, a P/E/G ratio of 6.12 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $160.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $182.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.