Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our thesis.
What: Shares of Palo Alto Networks, (PANW 2.18%) rose more than 11% Thursday after the company announced a favorable court ruling in a patent infringement case brought by Juniper Networks.
So what: Specifically, Palo Alto announced a U.S. District Court has rejected Juniper's motion for summary judgment of patent infringement. Instead, the court granted, in part, several of Palo Alto Networks' motions for summary judgment of non-infringement based on the doctrine of equivalents. What's more, Palo Alto Networks received favorable decisions on claim construction regarding the patents.
Now what: The decision paves the way for a trial, during which Palo Alto Networks CEO Mark McLaughlin insists they "look forward to proving [...] that we do not infringe the Juniper patents."
Even so, and keeping in mind that shares aren't exactly cheap trading around 90 times next year's estimated earnings, I still prefer to remain on the sidelines until the infringement suit is fully resolved.
