Truist Financial Reiterates Buy Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Truist Financial in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $220.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $205.00. Truist Financial’s target price indicates a potential upside of 20.33% from the stock’s previous close.

PANW has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Barclays set a $200.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, HSBC reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.64.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.6%

PANW traded down $1.15 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $182.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,712,198 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,482,113. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $164.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $180.84. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $149.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.04, a PEG ratio of 6.65 and a beta of 0.77.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.81 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.40, for a total transaction of $177,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 83,136 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,418,150.40. The trade was a 1.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total transaction of $3,729,476.44. Following the transaction, the director owned 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,631,525. The trade was a 30.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 30,356 shares of company stock valued at $4,981,575. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Steph & Co. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% during the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% during the fourth quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% during the fourth quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.