Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 39,260 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 58% compared to the typical volume of 24,861 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. KeyCorp upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $185.00 target price (up from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $222.50 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.72.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 2.9 %

PANW stock traded down $5.37 during trading on Monday, hitting $177.88. The company had a trading volume of 4,227,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,296,901. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $130.04 and a 1-year high of $207.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $191.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $178.03. The firm has a market cap of $116.72 billion, a PE ratio of 23.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.14.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following 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. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 352.6% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% in the third quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2,933.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 91 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 88 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, 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.