Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 4.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shot up 4.3% on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $223.00 to $230.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $186.15 and last traded at $184.77. 2,460,327 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 6,106,095 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.11.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price target (down from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $216.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.24.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at $705,730,831.62. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,744,323.20. The trade was a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 867,734 shares of company stock valued at $161,546,523. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its stake in 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 valued at $79,149,000 after acquiring an additional 32,626 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,232,000 after purchasing an additional 7,291 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 4.2 %

The business has a fifty day moving average of $189.18 and a 200-day moving average of $178.72. The firm has a market cap of $121.12 billion, a PE ratio of 48.12, a PEG ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

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.