Pinion Investment Advisors LLC Buys 5,793 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Pinion Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 564.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,819 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,793 shares during the period. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $633,068,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,100,311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,830 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% in the 2nd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $430,755,000 after buying an additional 1,041,145 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of 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 position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.86.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $188.88 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $131.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.54, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $223.61. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $193.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $195.96.

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. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current 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.