Sheets Smith Wealth Management Acquires Shares of 1,445 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,445 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $426,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Webster Bank N. A. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% during the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% during the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% during the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,295,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 158,917 shares of company stock valued at $44,335,843. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Capital One Financial lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $302.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $299.08 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.75 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $285.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $294.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.63 billion, a PE ratio of 46.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current fiscal 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.