Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANWGet Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 36,704 call options on the company. This is an increase of 30% compared to the average volume of 28,141 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $208.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. OTR Global reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $188.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.85.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on PANW

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $65,744,323.20. This represents a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 867,734 shares of company stock valued at $161,546,523. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,048,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,474 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $333,925,000 after acquiring an additional 1,213,073 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $297,450,000 after acquiring an additional 848,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.1% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,562,722 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $284,353,000 after purchasing an additional 796,964 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ PANW opened at $192.94 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $188.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $179.38. The firm has a market cap of $126.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.37 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $130.04 and a twelve month high of $207.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANWGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Palo Alto Networks

(Get Free Report)

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.

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