Shum Financial Group Inc. Takes $1.10 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Shum Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 5,389 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,097,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $496,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Sequent Asset Management LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sequent Asset Management LLC now owns 1,306 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, TFG Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the second quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $955,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. DA Davidson set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, December 19th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $220.00 target price (down from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. JMP Securities upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $186.85 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $198.88 and a 200-day moving average of $196.89. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total value of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at $29,190,293.42. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total transaction of $23,177,738.34. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 327,645 shares in the company, valued at $62,878,351.95. The trade was a 26.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 381,222 shares of company stock valued at $78,762,727. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.