Royal Bank Of Canada Reiterates Outperform 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 "outperform" rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $232.00 price target on the network technology company's stock. Royal Bank Of Canada's price objective points to a potential upside of 25.54% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $215.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley set a $496.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $218.86.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock traded up $8.63 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $184.80. 10,863,847 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,292,998. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $210.39. The company has a market capitalization of $123.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 105.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.94. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $191.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $186.35.

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

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $126,423,337. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. St. Clair Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the second quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the second quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $955,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSG Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the first quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,154,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in 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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