The shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc. they achieved their best one-day performance ever, in addition to record record prices, as analysts praised the cybersecurity company’s positioning after its multi-year acquisitions.
Palo Alto Networks PANW,
shares rallied up 20% to an intraday record of $ 446.91 to close at a record $ 441.87, surpassing its previous record closing price of $ 403.64 set on August 5 . , surpassing its gain of 17.2% on June 1, 2017, the day after reporting the gains.
The software company’s quarterly results and quarterly outlook exceeded Wall Street estimates on Monday afternoon, but the most important piece of information was the lack of a new acquisition after Palo Alto Networks made a new acquisition average. each quarter for more than three years, showing signs that it is settling into its transformation.
Many analysts cited Palo Alto Networks ’revenue growth as one of the highlights of the report, as cybersecurity hackers are becoming more common. Turnover, which reflects future contracted business, rose nearly 35% to $ 1.878 billion during the quarter, compared to $ 1.391 billion the previous year, while the street was expecting $ 1.71 billion .
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill, who has a buy rating and raised its price target to $ 450 from $ 420, said the company “easily broke investor concerns” with its growth and billing targeting, mergers and shares “respite” and stock rewards.
“We believe the network security leader remains well positioned to meet the needs of customers in a hybrid world given formidable investments in cloud security and market focus,” Thill said.
Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz, who has a buy rating and raised his price target to $ 525 from $ 475, said Palo Alto Networks reported a “really impressive quarter.” .
“We remain very constructive in improving the mix of changes towards recurring revenue with higher growth and we reiterate our view that PANW easily owns the strongest range of cloud assets among traditional network security providers,” he said. dir Moskowitz.
Stifel analyst Adam Borg, who has a buy rating and raised his price target to $ 490 from $ 455, said it’s important to keep in mind that Palo Alto Networks’ solid outlook shows what to expect. that the “strong cybersecurity spending environment” continues.
“Net / clean, we continue to believe that Palo Alto is well positioned in its areas of focus on network, cloud and security operations and has several drivers to maintain at least a growth of the top line of teens, along with operating margin and free cash flow expansion in the coming years, ”Borg said.
Raymond James analyst Adam Tindle, who has outperformed the rating and raised his price target from $ 450 to $ 410, had one concern: that the company’s margin outlook was below street estimates. , but that it was not as bad as feared.
“This was coupled with a commitment to improving margin beyond FY 22, a move away from substantial M&A, and involves a period of margin expansion, improved cash flow and a more favorable capital allocation to shareholders who should dominate the narrative for a while, ”Tindle said.
Of the 36 analysts covering Palo Alto Networks, 32 have buy ratings, three have hold ratings and one has a sell rating. Of those, 22 raised their price targets on Tuesday while one lowered theirs, resulting in an average price target of $ 475.50, up from the previous $ 445.18, according to FactSet data.
Shares of Palo Alto Networks have risen 65% over the past twelve months. In comparison, the ETFMG Prime Cyber Security ETF HACK,
increases by 30%, while the S&P 500 SPX index,
increases by 31% and the Nasdaq COMP composite index
has increased by 32%.
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