Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) “Overweight” Rating Reiterated at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $235.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 25.61% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on PANW. Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Mizuho set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $230.00 target price (up from $225.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.79.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $187.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $203.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $197.55. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total value of $23,177,738.34. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 327,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,878,351.95. This trade represents a 26.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total value of $132,573.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,864,398.95. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,228,330 shares of company stock worth $251,702,305. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% during the first quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 7.9% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,234,551 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $457,279,000 after buying an additional 163,718 shares in the last quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 87.2% during the second quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC now owns 3,286 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $672,000 after buying an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4,524.0% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 547,944 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $112,131,000 after buying an additional 536,094 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.