Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $455.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price increased by analysts at Evercore ISI from $395.00 to $455.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.25% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on PANW. Truist Financial upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $376.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $391.92.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $388.06 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $249.56 and a 12-month high of $408.53. The company has a market capitalization of $126.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.12. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $361.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.02.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.80 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total value of $20,698,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,924.82. The trade was a 27.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 64,737 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $22,127,000 after acquiring an additional 5,133 shares during the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $5,827,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,152 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $394,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Virtue Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% in the third quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $578,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $676,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.