Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $230.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 25.34% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PANW. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target (up from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group set a $215.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.4%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $183.50 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $187.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $194.88. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.76.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total value of $940,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,190,293.42. This trade represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock worth $76,386,460 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 29.4% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 32,155 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,547,000 after acquiring an additional 7,301 shares in the last quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 240.1% in the third quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 11,732 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,389,000 after purchasing an additional 8,282 shares during the period. GoalVest Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1,248.9% in the third quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 10,899 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,219,000 after purchasing an additional 10,091 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 7.9% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,234,551 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $457,279,000 after buying an additional 163,718 shares during the period. Finally, Richmond Investment Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.2% during the 2nd quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC now owns 3,286 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $672,000 after buying an additional 1,531 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.