Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $450.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target upped by Oppenheimer from $410.00 to $450.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on PANW. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $376.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $364.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $118.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.45 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $233.81 and a 52 week high of $384.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $350.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $325.17.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $47,055,533.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.77, for a total transaction of $11,439,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,187,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $377,373,165.59. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $47,055,533.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 351,452 shares of company stock valued at $118,643,279. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,118,190,000 after buying an additional 1,002,239 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $177,933,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 444,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 444,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $150,520,000 after acquiring an additional 444,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,099,564,000 after acquiring an additional 255,060 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.