Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 106,557 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 28% compared to the average volume of 83,146 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John P. Key sold 2,163 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.41, for a total transaction of $660,601.83. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 12,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,860,076.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director John P. Key sold 2,163 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.41, for a total transaction of $660,601.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,860,076.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $99,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,770. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 258,182 shares of company stock worth $74,850,597 in the last quarter. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1,111.1% in the 1st quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 109 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Jackson Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.3% in the first quarter. Jackson Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,351 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,805,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 13.0% during the first quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 11,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,317 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.3% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,418 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,030,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hamilton Wealth LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 48.7% in the first quarter. Hamilton Wealth LLC now owns 19,655 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,585,000 after acquiring an additional 6,435 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 4.8 %

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $340.82 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $201.17 and a 1-year high of $380.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.54, a PEG ratio of 4.98 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $304.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $306.64.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.94 earnings per share 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.