Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) provides a security platform to aid businesses, government entities and other organizations to restrict the number of applications running on their networks to prevent breaches. The stock is currently trading around $162.50 at the upper end of its 52 week range of $66.77-$165.09. The stock has been outperforming the market this year rallying 32.72% year to date. PANW is scheduled to report earnings after the bell today, Wednesday the 27th, and the stock is selling off ahead of the release. PANW is lower on the session by around $1.34 ahead of the closing bell.
Over the past 8 quarters PANW has rallied on earnings day 6 times with an average move of 6.30%. PANW also appears bullish on a chart going into the release. The stock has been trading above the Ichimoku Cloud for around 4 weeks, and looks as if it could rip to the upside in today’s session. The area between the Senkou Span A line and the Senkou Span B line appears to be steadily maintaining its size indicating a trend that is harder to reverse. This cloud continues maintaining its size still indicating a bullish outlook. Due to the stock’s historical performance on earnings day and strong technical data, it is hard to justify anything but a bullish trade in PANW.
The options market is currently implying a move of around $9.00 or 5.5% in PANW by next Friday’s close giving us an upside target around $171.50.