Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $450.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 15.17% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on PANW. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $420.00 to $435.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $376.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $403.59.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW traded down $2.18 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $390.71. 2,360,836 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,837,163. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $260.09 and a 1-year high of $408.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $127.22 billion, a PE ratio of 55.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $362.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $338.41.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total transaction of $3,484,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. This trade represents a 24.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tradewinds LLC. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $791,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% during the third quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,379,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.