Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft Issues Positive Forecast for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target raised by Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from $395.00 to $415.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has a buy rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on PANW. Barclays upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $414.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $370.00 price objective (up from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks 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 given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $401.78.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ:PANW traded down $13.37 on Thursday, hitting $384.33. 699,501 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,845,688. The stock has a market cap of $125.14 billion, a PE ratio of 54.82, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $260.09 and a fifty-two week high of $408.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $363.59 and a 200-day moving average of $338.82.

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

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The company’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value 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 $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 a total of 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 in the last three months. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% during 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 period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings 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 during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $5,827,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.1% during the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,152 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $394,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Finally, Virtue Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the third quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.