Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Downgraded by HSBC to Reduce

HSBC downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) from a hold rating to a reduce rating in a report published on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $291.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $304.00.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on PANW. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $445.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $432.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $383.36 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $260.09 and a one year high of $408.53. The company has a market cap of $124.82 billion, a PE ratio of 49.92, a P/E/G ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $364.32 and a 200-day moving average of $339.39.

Palo Alto Networks shares are scheduled to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly issued shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total transaction of $3,484,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares in the company, valued at $10,983,359.33. This represents a 24.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.6% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 64,737 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $22,127,000 after acquiring an additional 5,133 shares in the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,827,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,152 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtue Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $578,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during 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.