Westpark Capital Reaffirms Hold Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Westpark Capital in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. JMP Securities increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $390.00 to $430.00 in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $402.56.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of PANW opened at $399.07 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $129.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.50, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50 day moving average is $362.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $338.41. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $260.09 and a 52-week high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total value of $20,698,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,854,924.82. The trade was a 27.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,609,486,000 after acquiring an additional 220,900 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position 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 during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,099,564,000 after buying an additional 255,060 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $757,321,000 after buying an additional 114,742 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.