William Blair downgraded Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) from Outperform to Market Perform.

Analyst Jonathan Ho has concerns over sales execution and expects a turnaround to "take some time to correct" as product growth is expected to remain subdued.

"We are downgrading our rating from Outperform to Market Perform, based on our belief that sales execution challenges are likely to take time some time to correct and that the company’s product growth will remain muted while it works through these issues. While we continue to view Palo Alto as a high quality cybersecurity company, which has transformed the network security landscape, we were disappointed to see product revenue growth again disappoint and guidance suggesting that these challenges will likely persist. We believe sales execution challenges typically take more than one quarter to resolve. In our view, investors will likely want to see evidence of traction in the sales execution improvements and a return to product revenue growth before confidence is restored."

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Shares of Palo Alto Networks closed at $151.90 yesterday.