Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 0.1%

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) dropped 0.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $270.36 and last traded at $271.75. Approximately 1,006,738 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 5,616,423 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.15.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PANW. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $274.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Piper Sandler cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $350.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, January 29th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $380.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.6 %

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $302.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $289.99. The company has a market capitalization of $89.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the transaction, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.33, for a total value of $17,059,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,327,194.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,129,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,127 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $751,276,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,430,299 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $804,199,000 after buying an additional 86,995 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.8% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,376,601 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $673,731,000 after buying an additional 92,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,136,547 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $924,905,000 after buying an additional 30,013 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.