Analysts Set Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target at $208.00

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-two research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $208.00.

Several analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. HSBC raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Roth Capital began coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. Northland Securities cut their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of 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.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. The trade was a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.05, for a total value of $160,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 42,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,450,734.65. This represents a 1.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 790,536 shares of company stock valued at $139,998,368 in the last three months. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Real Talk Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the first quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 8,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth about $911,000. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth about $91,748,000. Intrua Financial LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 1,630 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $278,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 3,707 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $203.32 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39. The stock has a market cap of $135.57 billion, a PE ratio of 116.18, a P/E/G ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $188.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.08.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.