DSM Capital Partners LLC Takes $111,000 Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 377 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. GSG Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 5,160 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,478,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 112,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $33,038,000 after buying an additional 26,767 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 24,726 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,291,000 after buying an additional 2,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 4,178 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,232,000 after buying an additional 1,325 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW traded up $10.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $321.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,714,975 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,984,595. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $201.17 and a 1 year high of $380.84. The stock has a market cap of $104.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.74, a PEG ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s fifty day moving average is $290.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $300.15.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Macquarie boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $290.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.39.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 278,326 shares of company stock valued at $80,147,130 in the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.