Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Zacks.com reports.

PANW has been the topic of several other research reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. 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. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $376.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.49.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW traded up $2.31 on Friday, hitting $362.64. The company had a trading volume of 2,926,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,937,745. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $233.81 and a 1-year high of $384.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $352.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $329.01. The stock has a market cap of $118.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.13.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,055,533.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $47,055,533.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 315,252 shares of company stock worth $107,138,877. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after purchasing an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $799,792,000 after buying an additional 198,078 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,377 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,244,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI raised its stake 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.