Northland Securities Raises Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $350.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price objective raised by research analysts at Northland Securities from $275.00 to $350.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Northland Securities’ price objective would suggest a potential downside of 6.30% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $360.20.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW traded up $30.16 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $373.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,997,481 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,416,026. The business’s 50-day moving average is $327.00 and its 200-day moving average is $310.68. The stock has a market cap of $120.95 billion, a PE ratio of 54.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $224.64 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $99,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,770. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $99,820.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,770. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,055,533.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 367,315 shares of company stock valued at $118,696,590. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 112,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $33,038,000 after acquiring an additional 26,767 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 24,726 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,291,000 after buying an additional 2,225 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% in the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $478,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the period. American National Bank lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 67.4% in the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 2,762 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $814,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.