Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 1.6% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) dropped 1.6% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $180.12 and last traded at $181.43. Approximately 1,001,689 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 6,108,466 shares. The stock had previously closed at $184.38.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Hsbc Global Res lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.9 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $119.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $186.16 and a 200 day moving average of $184.71.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $18,191,542.15. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 358,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,353,042.65. This trade represents a 21.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Copia Wealth Management bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $218,000. IronOak Wealth LLC. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $2,562,000. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. TFR Capital LLC. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $2,173,000. Finally, Plotkin Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 155.9% in the fourth quarter. Plotkin Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,280 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $415,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares during 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.