Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 1.6%

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares dropped 1.6% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $329.61 and last traded at $330.10. Approximately 400,180 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 4,525,212 shares. The stock had previously closed at $335.56.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $325.59.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $104.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $321.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $311.85.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released 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 firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total value of $42,165,110.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at $55,791,570. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.54, for a total transaction of $22,436,448.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 694,228 shares in the company, valued at $233,635,491.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total transaction of $42,165,110.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,791,570. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 428,391 shares of company stock worth $136,147,317 over the last 90 days. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Spirit of America Management Corp NY lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 31.4% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 112,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,038,000 after purchasing an additional 26,767 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 24,726 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,291,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% during the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $478,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 46.4% during the fourth quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 4,178 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.