Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Key Points

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Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $230.00 price objective on the network technology company's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target suggests a potential upside of 30.56% from the company's previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Westpark Capital restated a "hold" rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, UBS Group set a $185.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $217.77.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $176.17 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $210.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $191.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $186.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $117.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.94.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. 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.

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