Guggenheim Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Key Points

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Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) had its price target hoisted by investment analysts at Guggenheim from $130.00 to $135.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "sell" rating on the network technology company's stock. Guggenheim's target price points to a potential downside of 23.37% from the stock's current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $212.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $215.00 price objective (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $218.12.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $176.17 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $210.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $117.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 100.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $191.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $186.35.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $99,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 8,632 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.85, for a total value of $1,009,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 101,135 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,414,099.75. This represents a 4.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $126,423,337 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at about $810,047,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $633,068,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 98.0% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,158,580 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,120,615,000 after buying an additional 3,047,625 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.

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