Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives Buy Rating from Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a $235.00 price target on the network technology company's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $190.00 price objective (down previously from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.27.

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Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $171.31. The stock had a trading volume of 4,034,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,899,185. The stock's 50 day moving average is $187.26 and its 200 day moving average is $185.48. The firm has a market cap of $113.42 billion, a PE ratio of 96.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $132.50 and a 1 year high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $89,532,411.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after buying an additional 6,725,148 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,324,387,000 after buying an additional 1,088,631 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently 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.