Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total value of $10,376,640.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.
Palo Alto Networks Price Performance
Shares of PANW stock traded up $0.89 on Friday, hitting $296.21. 3,436,945 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,292,921. The firm has a market cap of $95.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.28, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $285.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $293.01. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $177.09 and a 52 week high of $380.84.
Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks
A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 buying an additional 1,058,127 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $1,563,020,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,430,299 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $804,199,000 after purchasing an additional 86,995 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 30,013 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $799,792,000 after buying an additional 198,078 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price target on 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. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $274.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Mizuho cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $314.82.
Read Our Latest Report on PANW
About Palo Alto Networks
(
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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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