Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) PT Raised to $435.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) had its price target lifted by KeyCorp from $400.00 to $435.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the network technology company's stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $374.15.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW traded down $1.32 during trading on Friday, reaching $374.83. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,449,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,382,185. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $233.81 and a 12 month high of $380.84. The firm has a market cap of $122.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $348.67 and a 200-day moving average of $322.67.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.41, for a total value of $64,682.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,782 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,014,746.62. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,994 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,505,142.12. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.41, for a total value of $64,682.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,746.62. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 351,452 shares of company stock worth $118,643,279 in the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $8,118,190,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,239 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $177,933,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 444,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 444,000 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $150,520,000 after purchasing an additional 444,100 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,099,564,000 after buying an additional 255,060 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.