Northland Securities Reiterates Market Perform Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating reissued by investment analysts at Northland Securities in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $370.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $350.00. Northland Securities’ price target suggests a potential downside of 5.83% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 16th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $396.03.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $392.89 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.19, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $362.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $338.41. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $258.17 and a 12 month high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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 owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total transaction of $20,698,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,924.82. This trade represents a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth about $536,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,788 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,929,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 7,468 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,122,000 after buying an additional 738 shares during the period. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the first quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beck Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 25.6% during the first quarter. Beck Capital Management LLC now owns 16,142 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,586,000 after acquiring an additional 3,289 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.