Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $445.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on PANW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $387.00 to $449.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $390.00 to $430.00 in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $383.36 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $260.09 and a 12-month high of $408.53. The company has a market cap of $124.82 billion, a PE ratio of 49.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $364.32 and a 200 day moving average of $339.63.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks are going to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total transaction of $3,484,900.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. This trade represents a 24.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $536,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% in the first quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,788 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,929,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 11.0% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 7,468 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,122,000 after purchasing an additional 738 shares during the last quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the first quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beck Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 25.6% during the 1st quarter. Beck Capital Management LLC now owns 16,142 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,586,000 after purchasing an additional 3,289 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.