Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $450.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $416.00 to $450.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $390.00 to $430.00 in a report on Thursday. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $383.36 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $364.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $339.89. The company has a market capitalization of $124.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $260.09 and a 12 month high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks’s stock is set to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,924.82. The trade was a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 2,606 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $891,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 5,133 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $5,827,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Finally, Virtue Capital Management LLC grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 70 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.