Latest news with #EricHeath
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Palo Alto's (PANW) Bold CyberArk Acquisition Raises Eyebrows—and a Downgrade
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is one of the . On July 31, KeyBanc analyst Eric Heath downgraded the stock from Overweight to 'Sector Weight'. The rating downgrade follows news that Palo Alto is acquiring CyberArk in an estimated $25 billion deal. In particular, the firm has talked about platformization strategy concerns with CyberArk. Heath talked about four key strategic concerns. 'We are downgrading shares of PANW to Sector Weight given four key strategic concerns following the announced acquisition of CyberArk. First, we don't think there are meaningful synergies between identity and a broad platform vendor focused on network and SecOps. Second, we think customers will prefer to use an independent vendor solely focused on identity. Third, unlike prior instances when Palo expanded into new markets, we don't see this benefiting from either a replacement cycle, a first mover advantage into a new market, or as a natural extension to an existing product. Fourth, we've had some increasing concerns recently following some customer and partner checks suggesting more aggressive behavior on pricing increases.' The hand of a successful entrepreneur signing a contract, symbolizing a productive acquisition. Heath further noted that the firm would get more constructive on the shares if: There is substantial demand for the existing NGS offerings to drive meaningful subscription revenue acceleration. AI agents are put into production and PAM [Privileged Access Management] vendors are the foremost manner customers choose to secure them Success with CyberArk Analysts had visibility to free cash flow, or FCF, margin expansion beyond 37.5%. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is a leader in AI-powered cybersecurity. While we acknowledge the potential of PANW as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Palo Alto Networks Stock Plummeted by More Than 5% Today
Key Points There were doubts about the company's latest deal. It has agreed to acquire peer CyberArk for around $25 billion in cash and stock. 10 stocks we like better than Palo Alto Networks › Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) made waves Wednesday when it announced a pricey acquisition, and on Thursday, investors were clearly getting worried about the cost. Analysts, too, started to express concern, with two even downgrading their recommendation on the shares. With these headwinds blowing in its face, Palo Alto's stock lost more than 5% of its value during the latter part of the trading day. That was a far steeper decline than the 0.4% slide of the benchmark S&P 500 index. The $25 billion question Palo Alto's asset-to-be is peer cybersecurity company CyberArk Software, for which it agreed to pay roughly $25 billion in a cash-and-stock deal. CyberArk is a specialist in the niche area of identity security, and Palo Alto said that its ownership of the business will make the segment "a core pillar of the company's multi-platform strategy." The buyout has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, and is anticipated to close in the second half of Palo Alto's fiscal 2026. Palo Alto certainly isn't a poor company. Nevertheless, $25 billion is a major outlay. Several analysts don't think that's worth it, including that frequent downgrader, KeyBanc's Eric Heath. Well before market open Thursday, Heath enumerated several major strategic concerns about the deal, according to reports. He cast doubt on the potential synergies of the two businesses, and opined that customers are likely to prefer using a specialized company purely for identity security rather than a broad cybersecurity services provider, among other factors. Unkind cuts? Other analysts were similarly bearish, although they didn't go as far as to downgrade their Palo Alto recommendations. They did reduce their price targets on the shares, however. That clutch of pundits included Mizuho's Gregg Moskowitz, who cut $15 from his fair value assessment on the stock to $210 per share. He did maintain his outperform (i.e., buy) recommendation, however. Do the experts think Palo Alto Networks is a buy right now? The Motley Fool's expert analyst team, drawing on years of investing experience and deep analysis of thousands of stocks, leverages our proprietary Moneyball AI investing database to uncover top opportunities. They've just revealed their to buy now — did Palo Alto Networks make the list? When our Stock Advisor analyst team has a stock recommendation, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor's total average return is up 1,049% vs. just 182% for the S&P — that is beating the market by 867.25%!* Imagine if you were a Stock Advisor member when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $638,629!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,098,838!* The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Palo Alto Networks Stock Plummeted by More Than 5% Today was originally published by The Motley Fool
Globe and Mail
01-08-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Why Palo Alto Networks Stock Plummeted by More Than 5% Today
Key Points There were doubts about the company's latest deal. It has agreed to acquire peer CyberArk for around $25 billion in cash and stock. 10 stocks we like better than Palo Alto Networks › Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) made waves Wednesday when it announced a pricey acquisition, and on Thursday, investors were clearly getting worried about the cost. Analysts, too, started to express concern, with two even downgrading their recommendation on the shares. With these headwinds blowing in its face, Palo Alto's stock lost more than 5% of its value during the latter part of the trading day. That was a far steeper decline than the 0.4% slide of the benchmark S&P 500 index. The $25 billion question Palo Alto's asset-to-be is peer cybersecurity company CyberArk Software, for which it agreed to pay roughly $25 billion in a cash-and-stock deal. CyberArk is a specialist in the niche area of identity security, and Palo Alto said that its ownership of the business will make the segment "a core pillar of the company's multi-platform strategy." The buyout has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, and is anticipated to close in the second half of Palo Alto's fiscal 2026. Palo Alto certainly isn't a poor company. Nevertheless, $25 billion is a major outlay. Several analysts don't think that's worth it, including that frequent downgrader, KeyBanc's Eric Heath. Well before market open Thursday, Heath enumerated several major strategic concerns about the deal, according to reports. He cast doubt on the potential synergies of the two businesses, and opined that customers are likely to prefer using a specialized company purely for identity security rather than a broad cybersecurity services provider, among other factors. Unkind cuts? Other analysts were similarly bearish, although they didn't go as far as to downgrade their Palo Alto recommendations. They did reduce their price targets on the shares, however. That clutch of pundits included Mizuho's Gregg Moskowitz, who cut $15 from his fair value assessment on the stock to $210 per share. He did maintain his outperform (i.e., buy) recommendation, however. Should you invest $1,000 in Palo Alto Networks right now? Before you buy stock in Palo Alto Networks, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palo Alto Networks wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $638,629!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,098,838!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Voters in Northern New York approve over $1 billion in school spending, elect board members -- full results here
May 20—WATERTOWN — All school district budgets in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties were approved by voters Tuesday. Voters also approved a $79.8 million capital project for Massena Central School and a $70.5 million project at Indian River Central School. Voting results reported as of late Tuesday include: JEFFERSON COUNTY Alexandria Budget $17,101,403 Yes 195 No 22 Proposition to buy two gas buses Yes 195 No 21 Nicole Langridge (177) and Eric Heath (192) elected to board Belleville Henderson Budget $13,253,283 Yes 286 No 155 Library proposition Yes 322 No 119 John M. Gleason (374) elected to five-year board seat Carthage Budget $77,511,700 Yes 288 No 82 Proposition to establish capital reserve fund Yes 282 No 87 Library proposition Yes 282 No 86 Robert Sligar (271) and Sean McHale (256) elected to three-year board seats General Brown Budget $30,272,783 Yes 379 No 101 Library proposition Yes 372 No 93 Tiffany Orcesi (233) and Michelle Peckham (310) elected to three-year board seats Indian River Budget $107,220,000 Yes 262 No 34 Capital improvement project $70,500,000 Yes 258 No 34 Proposition to establish capital reserve fund Yes 266 No 28 Library proposition Yes 257 No 38 Lori Tuttle (197), Kathy Hutchinson (184) and Jennifer Bleam (219) elected to board seats LaFargeville Budget $12,806,741 Yes 69 No 3 Matthew Duffany (60) elected to five-year board seat Lyme Budget $9,561,594 Yes 183 No 48 Proposition to purchase one gas bus Yes 188 No 43 Library proposition Yes 183 No 48 Cassandra Shuler (116) elected to five-year board seat Sackets Harbor Budget $10,675,885 Yes 212 No 43 Bus proposition Yes 218 No 33 Travis Downey (130) elected to five-year board seat South Jefferson Budget $44,006,306 Yes 339 No 88 Proposition to purchase six buses Yes 337 No 90 Library proposition Yes 316 No 112 Elizabeth Reed (283), Erin Gaffney (294) and Ellen Moculski (344) elected to board seats Thousand Islands Budget $23,099,995 Yes 283 No 43 Library proposition Yes 272 No 57 LeAnn Hill (289), Bruce Mason (289) and Jennifer Bach (279) elected to board seats Watertown Budget $103,909,155 Yes 574 No 282 Proposition to establish capital reserve fund Yes 663 No 186 Proposition to establish furniture reserve fund Yes 632 No 214 Security proposition Yes 689 No 162 Melanie Stano (305) and Culley Gosier (512) elected to three-year board seats LEWIS COUNTY Beaver River Budget $23,255,669 Yes 285 No 146 Ian Gilbert (332) and Jamie Zehr (318) elected to three-year board seats Copenhagen Budget $12,679,726 Yes 60 No 6 Gabrielle Thompson (65) elected to five-year board seat Proposition to provide Head Start transportation Yes 60 No 6 Harrisville Budget $11,531,744 Yes 211 No 60 Proposition to purchase two buses Yes 215 No 57 Brian Schrodt (109) elected to five-year board seat Lowville Budget $31,425,533 Yes 352 No 81 Proposition to purchase three buses Yes 349 No 85 Proposition for Head Start transportation Yes 394 No 38 Joseph Lawrence (242), Benjamen Manning (237) and Bethany Munn (379) elected to board seats South Lewis Budget $31,837,132 Yes 213 No 61 Patrick D'Ambrosi (167) and Richard Venturi (175) elected to school board seats ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY Brasher Falls Budget $31,711,501 Yes 185 No 20 Bus proposition Yes 179 No 26 Sarah Ashley (159) and Seth Belt (153) for board seat Canton Budget $42.03 million Yes 313 No 97 Proposition to purchase three buses and a van Yes 320 No 96 Library proposition Yes 323 No 35 Rob Larrabee (349), Denise Sero (330) and Susan Toshack (329) elected to board seats Clifton Fine Budget $12,099,420 Yes 153 No 50 Proposition to purchase to EV buses Yes 103 No 109 Proposition to establish capital reserve fund Yes 152 No 62 Judy Benzel, Nicole Curry and Parker Perrault elected to three-year board seats Colton Pierrepont Budget $14,025,310 N/A Proposition to establish capital reserve fund N/A Karen Peck elected to four-year board seat Edwards-Knox Budget $18,663,253 Yes 126 No 39 Proposition to purchase two diesel buses Yes 144 No 21 Proposition to establish capital reserve fund Yes 125 No 38 Jennifer Benson-Baxter (100) elected to five-year board seat Gouverneur Budget $47,840,977 Yes 218 No 76 William Cartwright (235), Tina French (224) and Lisa McGregor (179) elected to three=year board seats Hammond Budget $10,267,964 Yes 58 No 51 Proposition to purchase one diesel bus Yes 66 No 43 Library proposition Yes 78 No 30 Heuvelton Budget $19,207,526 Yes 85 No 38 Brent Phillips (98) and Amy Perkins (82) elected to board seats Herman-DeKalb Budget $14,561,880 N/A Proposition to establish capital reserve fund N/A Proposition to purchase two buses N/A Lisbon Budget $18,341,298 Yes 166 No 74 Proposition to purchase two diesel buses Yes 173 No 67 Nancy Fox (181) elected to five-year board seat Madrid-Waddington Budget $21,500,940 Yes 142 No 14 Bus proposition Yes 146 No 8 Capital outlay proposition Yes 145 No 9 Ryan Hayes and Christopher Pryce elected to five-year board seats Proposition to purchase one bus and one van Massena Budget $74,402,939 Yes 461 No 145 Capital project $79.8 million Yes 429 No 159 Proposition to establish capital reserve fund Yes 469 No 131 Robert LaBlanc (322), Bruce Beckstead (382) and Timothy Hayes (452) elected to board seats Morristown Budget $11,742,305 Yes 125 No 34 Library proposition Yes 127 No 42 Joshua Hunter (149), Kristy Simmons (128) and Lawrence Kring (138) elected to three-year board terms Norwood-Norfolk Budget $30,280,541 Yes 205 No 43 Proposition to purchase three buses Yes 213 No 33 Katherine LaVigne (169), Kimberly Smith (154), Mary Ellen Todd (189) and Susan Mackey (143) elected to board seats Ogdensburg Budget $56,092,979 Yes 279 No 175 Library proposition Yes 232 No 219 Connor Sutton (396) and Elizabeth Testani (387) elected to five-year board seats Parishville-Hopkinton Budget $13,585,904 Yes 168 No 53 Cassie Hayes (113) and Bonnie Marston (103) elected to school board seats Potsdam Budget $43,229,127 Yes 413 No 74 Bus proposition Yes 417 No 68 Ralph Fuller (268), Rachel Wallace (315)and (Sara) Rivka Eckert (214) elected to board seats
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fortinet (FTNT) Reiterated Overweight by KeyBanc on Growth and Refresh Cycle
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) stands against other AI stocks that are making waves on Wall Street today. The United States recently issued guidance threatening companies not to use advanced computer chips from China, including Huawei's Ascend AI chips. However, China has now urged the country to 'immediately correct its wrongdoings' and stop 'discriminatory' measures against it. A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce has said that the United States has abused its export control measures. He said that the country has imposed stricter restrictions on Chinese chip products based on unfounded allegations, further explaining how the said restrictions contain discriminatory measures and tend to distort the market. The U.S. Commerce Department had issued the guidance last week, with its Bureau of Industry and Security stating that 'these chips were likely developed or produced in violation of U.S. export controls.' 'The U.S. has been abusing export control measures, imposing stricter restrictions on Chinese chip products under unfounded accusations… China firmly opposes this… Trying to trip others won't make oneself run faster.' Opposing the unilateral bullying from the US's end, the Chinese spokesperson said that the restrictions have infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. The country has been accused of undermining the preliminary trade agreement reached in Geneva, Switzerland. The spokesperson further urged the country to work with China to jointly safeguard the consensus concluded in the Geneva talks. 'If the United States continues to cause China substantive harm, China will take resolute measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.' For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (). A close-up of a user authenticating into a secure network using a two-factor authentication Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT), a cybersecurity company, provides enterprise-level next-generation firewalls and network security solutions, leveraging artificial intelligence across its cybersecurity products. On May 20, KeyBanc analyst Eric Heath reiterated an 'Overweight' rating on the stock with a $115.00 price target. Even though Fortinet has been operating in a complex macroeconomic environment, feedback for April and the beginning of May has been predominantly positive. Even though a few concerns were raised by partners regarding recent turnover within Fortinet's go-to-market (GTM) team, the overall sentiment about Fortinet's market position and growth prospects remains positive. The report ended with a positive note on the industry-wide refresh cycle, specific end-of-service refresh opportunity, and its unique strategy in expanding into Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). 'Following Fortinet's mixed 1Q earnings results & commentary, we caught up with a handful of channel contacts, and the feedback on the month of April and into May has generally been positive. Further, despite the dynamic macro, channel feedback on pipeline and the outlook for the end-of-service refresh opportunity also remains constructive. There were, however, a couple partners that expressed some caution of recent turnover among Fortinet's GTM team that is causing execution to not be as strong as it maybe otherwise could be. Separately, following Fortinet's 10-Q filing, we are lowering our services revenue estimates to now decelerate throughout 2025 as opposed to our prior model that had modest acceleration. As a result, we are now 0.5% below the midpoint of revenue guidance. Our recent channel conversations keep us positive on the broader industry firewall refresh cycle underway, the Fortinet end-of-service refresh opportunity, and Fortinet's differentiated GTM & product strategy to be successful expanding into SASE, if some incremental caution on GTM execution. Reiterate Overweight and $115 price target.' Overall, FTNT ranks 11th on our list of AI stocks that are making waves on Wall Street today. While we acknowledge the potential of FTNT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FTNT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
