Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $330.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Oppenheimer from $305.00 to $330.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 17.38% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Northland Securities lowered Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $275.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Piper Sandler downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $350.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $380.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $281.14 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $90.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 1.19. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $176.30 and a 1 year high of $380.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $297.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $290.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.33, for a total transaction of $17,059,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,327,194.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,129,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058,127 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $751,276,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,430,299 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $804,199,000 after acquiring an additional 86,995 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,376,601 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $673,731,000 after acquiring an additional 92,760 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,136,547 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $924,905,000 after acquiring an additional 30,013 shares during the last quarter. 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.