PANW Stock: Despite Its Elevated Valuation, Palo Alto Stock Is a Buy

Apart from an appealing valuation, Palo Alto (NASDAQ:PANW) inventory has everything prolonged-term traders need to be hunting for. Amid Palo Alto’s favorable characteristics are amazing monetary benefits, outstanding merchandise, a verified management team, potent macro catalysts, and frequently favourable assessments by analysts.

Importantly, although the stock’s valuation is not attractive and would likely be considered by some as too much, it isn’t outrageous either. Specified all of the company’s upbeat drivers and the actuality that its valuation isn’t ridiculous, I suggest extensive-phrase,, development investors looking for an IT stability play to acquire the shares.

 Palo Alto’s Fiscal Results, Products and solutions and Management

Above the a long time, Palo Alto has claimed incredibly solid monetary results. Its earnings surged from $2.9 billion in fiscal 2019 to $4.26 billion in FY20 to $4.26 billion in FY21 to $4.86 billion over the 12 months that finished on Jan. 31.  Meanwhile, the company’s dollars stream from operations jumped from $1.035b billion in FY20 to $1.5 billion in FY21 and $1.675 billion in the course of the 12 months that ended on Jan. 31.

As significantly as goods, Louis Navalier, a veteran, extremely productive trader, not too long ago identified as Palo Alto”s offerings “robust” and “top-of-the-line.” Also supplying superior praise on this front was Seeking Alpha’s Cappuccino Finance. According to the columnist, Palo Alto’s  “Cortex Extended Stability Intelligence and Automation Administration (XSIAM) will revolutionize security operations ” with its exceptionally quickly response moments.

Palo Alto’s CEO, Nikesh Arora, joined the organization in 2018. He has a terrific resume, featuring a stint as COO of Softbank and a 10-yr tenue at Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google.  And, judging by Palo Alto’s money outcomes above the past a number of yrs, he’s carried out an great task as its leader.

Macro Catalysts and Analysts’ Assessments

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western countries’ determination to reply with unprecedented economic sanctions, numerous are concerned that Russia will retaliate with cyberattacks on Western international locations.

Additionally, on March 15, President Joe Biden signed a bill “requiring swift disclosure of all hacks and ransom payments,” Needham analyst Alex Henderson wrote, according to Investor’s Business Every day. The provision could bring about IT safety paying out to meaningfully increase, the analyst believes. Last but not least, a variety of analysts think that a new “network vulnerability” known as “Log4j” could improve the shares of IT safety organizations.

Most analysts who include PANW stock appear to be upbeat on the shares.

As proof of that, in February, a few analysts experienced rate targets on the shares of $620 or over. Right now the stock is switching arms for significantly less than $585.

PANW stock has a ahead price-earnings ratio of 64. That’s somewhat higher, whilst not incredibly excessive. But specified the stock’s many other favourable attributes, I imagine that it is a acquire for long-term, advancement investors.

On the day of publication, Larry Ramer did not maintain (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities described in this post. The views expressed in this short article are those people of the author, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Tips.