Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Buys 4,748 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 9.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,748 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $11,033,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday. Thirty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.06.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,190,293.42. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 260,448 shares of company stock valued at $53,168,301 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of PANW stock opened at $182.12 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $196.19 and a 200-day moving average of $196.40. The company has a market capitalization of $126.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.76.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

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.