Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $210.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $185.00 price target (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.40.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $189.51 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $191.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.55. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $207.24. The firm has a market cap of $124.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68, a PEG ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,237,430 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 72,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.25, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 2,231,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 571,172 shares of company stock worth $107,074,352. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% in the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after purchasing an additional 32,626 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $67,232,000 after purchasing an additional 7,291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.