Welch Group LLC Takes $7.92 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Welch Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 38,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,922,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. OLD National Bancorp IN grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% during the third quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 19,993 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,071,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 177,358 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,114,000 after acquiring an additional 9,634 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 23,352 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,755,000 after acquiring an additional 5,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parcion Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,449 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,517,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 target price (up from $236.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total transaction of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. This represents a 1.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total value of $23,177,738.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 327,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,878,351.95. This represents a 26.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 376,922 shares of company stock worth $77,963,339. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $189.49 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $201.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $197.29. The firm has a market cap of $132.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.93, a PEG ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.