Sanford C. Bernstein Cuts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $225.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price cut by Sanford C. Bernstein from $229.00 to $225.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on PANW. Scotiabank raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. HSBC raised Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.40.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $186.75 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $142.01 and a 52 week high of $208.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $123.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 105.21, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $178.11 and its 200 day moving average is $185.36.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,543,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,038.83. This trade represents a 41.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 568,962 shares of company stock worth $96,933,690 over the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $548,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 106.4% in the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,378 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 94.3% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 11,661 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,122,000 after acquiring an additional 5,658 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 21,354 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,886,000 after acquiring an additional 11,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 82.1% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,345,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $244,871,000 after acquiring an additional 606,778 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.