Hills Bank & Trust Co Reduces Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Hills Bank & Trust Co trimmed its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,562 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 156 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Webster Bank N. A. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% during the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% during the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% in the 3rd quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on PANW. Scotiabank cut their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Northland Securities cut Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $275.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $325.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. 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 on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:PANW traded up $2.72 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $298.39. The stock had a trading volume of 1,198,866 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,164,443. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.75 and a 12-month high of $380.84. The stock has a market cap of $96.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $285.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $294.53.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total transaction of $36,334,289.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,895,983.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total value of $36,334,289.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,895,983.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 280,193 shares of company stock worth $80,670,132. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.