Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $410.00 to $450.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $381.18 and last traded at $380.83, with a volume of 157719 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $374.83.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $376.82.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.41, for a total transaction of $64,682.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,746.62. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 351,452 shares of company stock worth $118,643,279 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% in the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $478,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lifted 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 valued at $79,149,000 after buying an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $799,792,000 after buying an additional 198,078 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 48.4% in the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 26,404 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,502,000 after buying an additional 8,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthspire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% in the first quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,377 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,244,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.6 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $122.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.43 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $350.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $324.94.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.