Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) “Hold” Rating Reiterated at Westpark Capital

Westpark Capital reiterated their hold rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on PANW. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $420.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $432.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $401.78.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 4.4 %

PANW stock traded down $17.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $380.18. The company had a trading volume of 1,653,304 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,849,889. The stock has a market capitalization of $123.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.82, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $260.09 and a one year high of $408.53. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $363.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $338.82.

Palo Alto Networks’s stock is scheduled to split on the morning of Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the market closes on Friday, December 13th.

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

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $79,149,000 after purchasing an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $67,232,000 after acquiring an additional 7,291 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $24,414,000. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% during the second quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 2,695 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.