Morgan Stanley Reiterates Overweight Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $360.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 13.42% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on PANW. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $325.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $316.85.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded up $0.63 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $317.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 413,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,036,796. The company has a market capitalization of $102.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.50, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $286.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $296.70. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $186.75 and a one year high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total value of $16,082,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,659,063. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 280,193 shares of company stock worth $80,670,132 in the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 66,214 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,523,000 after acquiring an additional 11,038 shares during the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the third quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 2,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 454.8% during the third quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 17,153 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,021,000 after purchasing an additional 14,061 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.8% in the third quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 15,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,681,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verus Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 18.3% in the third quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,731 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $406,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. 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.