24/7 Wall St.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results after the markets close on Thursday. Consensus estimates are calling for $1.17 in earnings per share (EPS) and $633.05 million in revenue. The fiscal fourth quarter of last year had EPS of $0.92 and $509.1 million in revenue.

In June, Palo Alto preannounced numbers that exceeded even the highest of expectations. And many analysts are coming away with a higher level of confidence in the longevity of the company’s product revenue growth profile.

The company also recently changed chief executives, with Nikesh Arora (former chief operating officer of SoftBank and chief business officer at Google) taking up the reins.

This company is helping to lead a new era in cybersecurity by protecting thousands of enterprise, government and service provider networks from cyber threats. Unlike fragmented legacy products, its security platform safely enables business operations and delivers protection based on what matters most in today’s dynamic computing environments: applications, users and content.

Overall, Palo Alto Networks has outperformed the broad markets with its stock up 54% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2019 alone, the stock is up 53%.

A few analysts weighed in on the company ahead of the earnings report:

• Raymond James has an Outperform rating and a $254 price target.
• Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating with a $250 price target.
• BMO Capital Markets rates it Market Perform with a $222 target.
• Argus has a Buy rating with a $229 target price.
• Morgan Stanley has a Buy rating with a $240 price target.
• Credit Suisse has an Underweight rating and a $175 target.
• Robert Baird has a Neutral rating with a $226 price target.

Palo Alto Networks shares were last seen at $221.82, with a consensus analyst price target of $229.93 and a 52-week trading range of $135.85 to $232.88.

24/7 Wall St.
3 Energy Stocks That Trade Under $10 and Have Big Upside Potential