Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Issues Q4 Earnings Guidance

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) issued an update on its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Monday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.40-1.42 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $1.41. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.15-2.17 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.16 billion.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $311.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $100.70 billion, a PE ratio of 45.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 1.18. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $188.30 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $288.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $299.00.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 37.81%. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $327.00 to $334.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $360.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $317.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the transaction, the president now 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,659,063. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 280,193 shares of company stock worth $80,670,132 over the last 90 days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.