Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $240.00 at KeyCorp

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target upped by KeyCorp from $217.00 to $240.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the topic of several other reports. HSBC cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $216.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $185.00 target price (up from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $222.50 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.77.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $201.88 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $130.04 and a 12-month high of $207.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.57, a P/E/G ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $186.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.28.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.32). Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $199,159,581.28. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at $1,156,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at $24,414,000. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 961,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $328,470,000 after acquiring an additional 4,400 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $13,731,000 after acquiring an additional 5,250 shares during the period. 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.