Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 1% – Still a Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price rose 1% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $172.03 and last traded at $169.19. Approximately 4,983,964 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 10,878,173 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.45.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the company. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. New Street Research dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Truist Financial set a $200.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Arete Research raised Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.0%

The firm has a market capitalization of $138.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.48, a PEG ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $169.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $189.35.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.81 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at $29,190,293.42. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Klingman & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $434,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the third quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. PTM Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.