Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) finished Thursday with an addition of $0.59 to close at $214.06, an upside of 0.28 percent. An average of 8,037,520 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$23.39 in the past week, and it reached a new high 25 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 4,859,005 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 6,410,688.
PANW stock has decreased by -7.99% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $208.02 on 08/08/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 07/05/23, shares of the company touched a low of $132.22 and a high of $258.88 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 40 times so far this year and achieved 53.40% or $74.52 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -17.31% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
PANW stock investors should be aware that Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 4 days ago on Aug 07. In this transaction, the insider spent $9,682,621. EVP, Chief Technology Officer, ZUK NIR, disposed of 36,000 shares at a price of $251.85 on Aug 01. The insider now owns more than $9,066,538 worth of shares. Prior to that, Chief Accounting Officer Paul Josh D. went on to Sale 250 shares at $249.89 each on Aug 01. An amount of $62,472 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 336.04. The stock’s beta is 1.21. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 10.97, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 52.72, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 26.00.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Palo Alto Networks Inc. for the three months ended April 29 was 0.70, and the current ratio was 0.70, indicating that the company is not able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.00 and a total debt to equity ratio of 2.99 for the quarter ending April 29. Palo Alto Networks Inc.’s EBITDA margin for the year ending April 29 is 2.69%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 2.30%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $3.78 billion compared to revenue of $5.5 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, Palo Alto Networks Inc.’s return on assets was 1.70%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended April 29, Palo Alto Networks Inc. had $1.97 billion in cash. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $107.8 million in the quarter, while revenues of $84.2 million were grew 167.9%. The analyst consensus anticipated Palo Alto Networks Inc.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $0.93 per share, but it turned out to be $1.1, a 18.30% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $246.2 million. Shareholders own equity worth $305.86 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 10 August was 26.09%, suggesting the stock is oversold, with historical volatility in this time frame at 51.86%.
As of today, PANW’s price is $214.51 -9.85% or -$23.39 from its 5-day moving average. PANW is currently trading -10.44% lower than its 20-day SMA and +13.19% higher than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is +0.74% above the SMA50 and +32.11% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 10.83% and 9.01%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 7.92. With the 14-day stochastic at 13.13% and the average true range at 7.74, the RSI (14) stands at 32.44%. The stock has reached -14.70 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -20.87.
Analyst Ratings
Wolfe Research reiterated its an Outperform rating on Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW), but raised their price target to $210, indicating a potential price decrease of -1.93% for the stock. The consensus rating for Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) among analysts is Buy. According to current brokerage recommendations, 0 brokerage firms advise that investors sell PANW, while 5 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 5 analysts, while 33 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is PANW’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $180.00 and $305.00, with a median target of $251.00. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) stock is $255.61.
