Analysts hailed Palo Alto Networks Inc., a pure-play cybersecurity vendor that sells security appliances, subscriptions, and support to enterprises, government entities, and service providers.
The analyst believes Palo Alto has “assembled the most comprehensive Zero Trust platform” and sees shares gains in Zero Trust driving top-line growth and operating and free cash flow margin expansion.
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill raised the price target to $650 from $615 and kept a Buy as he adjusted his targets across the app, infrastructure, and security software spaces. The price target implies a 23 percent upside.
Software underperformed the S&P 500 by 15 percent in 2021 as overall valuations contracted 10 percent, noted Thill.
He thinks multiples in the space will continue to compress in 2022 as 80 percent of software names will likely decelerate with “digital digestion” coming out of the pandemic.
