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Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Palo Alto Networks (PANW - Free Report) closed at $622.40, marking a +0.04% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.51%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.44%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.1%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the security software maker had gained 15.23% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 4.34% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.51% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Palo Alto Networks as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.66, up 20.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.36 billion, up 26.47% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.27 per share and revenue of $5.46 billion, which would represent changes of +18.4% and +28.21%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Palo Alto Networks should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 7.98% lower. Palo Alto Networks is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Palo Alto Networks currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 85.57. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 58.24, so we one might conclude that Palo Alto Networks is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that PANW has a PEG ratio of 2.92. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. PANW's industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.34 as of yesterday's close.

The Security industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 190, putting it in the bottom 26% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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