Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives $203.06 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-four research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have issued a hold recommendation, twenty-eight have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $203.06.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. Citigroup increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Stephens started coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $205.00 price target for the company. HSBC upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total value of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 448,188 shares of company stock worth $74,074,795 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 2,606 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $891,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,528 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,915,000 after buying an additional 1,119 shares during the last quarter. Sfmg LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 16,836 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,754,000 after buying an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at $2,642,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $188.69 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 106.30, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $175.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.71.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.