Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $225.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on PANW. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.85.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $196.40 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $128.88 billion, a PE ratio of 51.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $207.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $186.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $180.69.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % 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 this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. This trade represents a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,156,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $24,414,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,173 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 961,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $328,470,000 after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% during the third quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 40,173 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,731,000 after purchasing an additional 5,250 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.