Oppenheimer Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Oppenheimer restated their outperform rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $330.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on PANW. Loop Capital downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $300.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $385.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $345.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $345.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Twelve equities research 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $317.45.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $311.44 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.84 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27, a PEG ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $289.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $299.15. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $194.08 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total value of $36,334,289.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,895,983.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total transaction of $36,334,289.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,895,983.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,295,567 shares in the company, valued at $373,434,232.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 278,326 shares of company stock worth $80,147,130. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $49,000. BigSur Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 110.2% in the first quarter. BigSur Wealth Management LLC now owns 22,505 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,394,000 after acquiring an additional 11,800 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth about $177,933,000. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 56.9% during the first quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 7,915 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 2,870 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at about $53,000. 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.