Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 7.2% – What’s Next?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price fell 7.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $154.05 and last traded at $154.77. 12,749,095 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 82% from the average session volume of 6,994,961 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.72.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on PANW shares. UBS Group set a $215.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 target price (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $186.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $194.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $107.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 0.75.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,502,184.05. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Sapient Capital LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 129,415 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $24,161,000 after purchasing an additional 2,154 shares during the last quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,148,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $85,000. Rossmore Private Capital lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 51.4% in the fourth quarter. Rossmore Private Capital now owns 24,096 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,439,000 after acquiring an additional 8,176 shares during the period. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 155,468 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,637,000 after purchasing an additional 8,970 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next?generation firewalls as a core on?premises capability, alongside cloud?delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.