Cantor Fitzgerald Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $223.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.41% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on PANW. Stephens lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.46.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ PANW traded up $0.25 on Monday, reaching $193.23. 1,004,647 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,517,859. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $142.01 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $177.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $185.16.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% 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, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,629,704.62. This trade represents a 27.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,142,122,000 after buying an additional 31,281,359 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 worth $2,611,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,725,148 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $970,736,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $810,047,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.