Scotiabank Cuts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $200.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price decreased by Scotiabank from $400.00 to $200.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 8.67% from the stock’s current price.

PANW has been the topic of several other reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $188.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.46.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.8 %

PANW stock traded up $3.30 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $184.04. The company had a trading volume of 1,430,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,951,981. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.77 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a P/E/G ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $191.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.59. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $130.04 and a fifty-two week high of $207.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. This trade represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,237,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This trade represents 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 owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,249,594 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050,173 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at about $174,124,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 444,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 444,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $150,520,000 after acquiring an additional 444,100 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $94,875,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.