Trueblood Wealth Management LLC Buys New Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Trueblood Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 1,287 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $380,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $751,276,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $204,728,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $85,025,000. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,453.6% in the third quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 437,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $102,670,000 after purchasing an additional 431,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Railway Pension Investments Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 463.5% in the third quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 493,053 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $115,591,000 after purchasing an additional 405,553 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.33, for a total transaction of $17,059,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,327,194.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director John Donovan sold 20,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.57, for a total transaction of $5,810,645.52. Following the transaction, the director now owns 43,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,510,086.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.33, for a total value of $17,059,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,327,194.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,153 shares of company stock valued at $44,107,332 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on PANW. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $272.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 11th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $350.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $310.00 to $305.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock traded up $1.87 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $284.13. The company had a trading volume of 3,397,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,021,122. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $320.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.10. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $176.30 and a 52-week high of $380.84. The stock has a market cap of $91.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.31, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.21.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.