Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Cantor Fitzgerald

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $445.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.26% from the company’s previous close.

PANW has been the topic of several other reports. OTR Global reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $402.56.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2 %

PANW stock opened at $392.89 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $258.17 and a twelve month high of $408.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $362.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $338.41. The stock has a market cap of $127.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.19, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total transaction of $20,698,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,924.82. This trade represents a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,609,486,000 after purchasing an additional 220,900 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,099,564,000 after purchasing an additional 255,060 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $757,321,000 after buying an additional 114,742 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is 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.