Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $392.89 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $362.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $338.41. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $258.17 and a 1-year high of $408.53. The stock has a market cap of $127.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PANW. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $416.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $391.92.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total transaction of $3,484,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,983,359.33. The trade was a 24.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.50% 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.