Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 6% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) traded down 6% on Friday . The company traded as low as $143.50 and last traded at $147.02. 11,368,503 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 8% from the average session volume of 10,568,912 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.36.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 6.0%

The company has a market capitalization of $119.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $187.78.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 52,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,631,525. This trade represents a 30.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% 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 144,252 shares of company stock valued at $26,947,635 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Klingman & Associates LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. PTM Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the third quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $276,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its position in shares of 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 worth $222,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.