Palo Alto Networks Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) saw an upside of 0.11% to close Tuesday at $226.79 after adding $0.26 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 2,312,020 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $238.88 in the past week and touched a new high 1 time within the past 5 days. An average of 2,577,910 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 4,101,066.
PANW’s 1-month performance is -1.72% or -$3.97 on its low of $224.64 reached on 09/25/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $132.22 and high of $258.88, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 07/05/23. YTD, PANW has achieved 62.53% or $87.25 and has reached a new high 40 times. However, the current price is down -12.40% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
PANW stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Sep 14.Bawa Aparna (Director) most recently sold 554 shares at $245.59 per share on Sep 14. This transaction cost the insider $136,056. President, Jenkins William D Jr, sold 2,040 shares at a price of $245.01 on Sep 07. Then, on Sep 01, EVP, Chief Product Officer Klarich Lee sold 45,000 shares at a price of $242.04 per share. This transaction amounted to $10,891,616.
Valuation Metrics
PANW stock has a beta of 1.20. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 10.15 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 39.99, with the price to cash flow ratio at 26.60.
Palo Alto Networks Inc’s quick ratio for the period ended July 30 was 0.74, with the current ratio over the same period at 0.74. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending July 30 was 0.16, while the total debt to equity was 1.30.. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 72.29%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $4.98 billion against revenue of $6.89 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending July 30 this year, Net income and sales went up compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income grew 98.55% to $227.7 million, while revenue of $107.8 million was 52.66% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected PANW to announce $1.28 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $1.44, representing a 12.50% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $435.6 million. PANW stock balance sheet for the quarter ending July 30 shows that total liabilities totaled 12.75 billion, with total debt at $2.33 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $308.6 million.
Let’s look briefly at Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 26 September was 31.18% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 17.51%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $228.91, reflecting a -3.97% or -$9.38 change from its current price. PANW is currently trading -2.42% above its 20-day SMA, +27.65% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -9.30% and SMA200 by+37.71%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 6.81% and 6.61% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 5.47. The RSI (14) points at 39.42%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 7.27% with the period’s ATR at 5.96. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -6.80 and -11.72 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Palo Alto Networks Inc (NASDAQ: PANW), BTIG Research reiterated its a Buy rating for the company but lifted their price target by $259 to $270. Analysts offering their rating for PANW stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Buy. Currently, 0 brokerage advisors rate PANW as a “sell,”, while 5 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 4 rates the stock as overweight while 34 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is PANW’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $225.00 and a high of $340.00, with their median price target at $279.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW) stock is $278.88.
