Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 0.3% After Analyst Downgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares fell 0.3% on Tuesday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $240.00 to $215.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as low as $166.83 and last traded at $170.10. 1,006,784 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 5,889,130 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.64.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on PANW. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Guggenheim cut Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.27.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $198,214,409.80. This represents a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. United Bank boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 6,835 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,336,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 149.1% in the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 6,001 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,051,000 after acquiring an additional 3,592 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.2% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 557,775 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $190,655,000 after purchasing an additional 89,719 shares during the period. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.1 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $186.72 and its 200-day moving average is $185.38. The firm has a market cap of $114.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.57, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. Analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.