Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading 0.9% Higher – Here’s Why

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price traded up 0.9% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $193.40 and last traded at $191.29. 786,712 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 6,306,849 shares. The stock had previously closed at $189.55.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.6 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $126.08 billion, a PE ratio of 107.29, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $186.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $184.32.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 three months, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,611,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,324,387,000 after buying an additional 1,088,631 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently 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.