Evercore ISI Cuts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $230.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target lowered by Evercore ISI from $455.00 to $230.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on PANW. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $212.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $210.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.46.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $180.74 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $191.81 and its 200-day moving average is $177.59. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $207.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.60 billion, a PE ratio of 23.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,237,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% in the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after buying an additional 32,626 shares during the period. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth about $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,232,000 after buying an additional 7,291 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.