The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $425.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $376.00 to $425.00 in a research note released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the topic of several other research reports. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $366.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $372.28.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $373.20 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $340.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $318.89. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $233.81 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84. The company has a market capitalization of $121.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.13.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.77, for a total value of $11,439,720.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,187,567 shares in the company, valued at $377,373,165.59. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.77, for a total value of $11,439,720.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,187,567 shares in the company, valued at $377,373,165.59. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total transaction of $20,698,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,854,924.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 269,866 shares of company stock worth $88,620,447 in the last quarter. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $478,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $79,149,000 after buying an additional 32,626 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 48.4% during the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 26,404 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,502,000 after buying an additional 8,611 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,377 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,244,000 after acquiring an additional 75 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.