Barclays Cuts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $213.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target trimmed by Barclays from $425.00 to $213.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $188.00 to $212.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $207.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $197.50 to $227.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, thirty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.40.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $189.36 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $130.04 and a 52-week high of $207.24. The stock has a market cap of $124.26 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $191.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.31.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,237,430 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 571,172 shares of company stock valued at $107,074,352. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,609,486,000 after buying an additional 220,900 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,099,564,000 after purchasing an additional 255,060 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $757,321,000 after buying an additional 114,742 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.