Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 1.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 1.8% on Friday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $390.00 to $421.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $378.33 and last traded at $375.92. 860,505 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 4,073,196 shares. The stock had previously closed at $369.40.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on PANW. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $416.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade 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 the SEC website. In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.41, for a total transaction of $64,682.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,746.62. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 269,866 shares of company stock worth $88,620,447. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 valued at $8,118,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,239 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 255,060 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position 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 valued at $799,792,000 after purchasing an additional 198,078 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 114,742 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,000,511 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $339,183,000 after acquiring an additional 73,922 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The business's 50-day moving average price is $340.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $318.89. The company has a market cap of $121.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.13.

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

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.