Midwest Trust Co Increases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Midwest Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 86,771 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,486 shares during the quarter. Midwest Trust Co’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $17,668,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $675,865,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the second 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. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3,881.4% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 721,157 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,842,000 after buying an additional 703,044 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $166.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $115.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 105.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $184.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.20. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share 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 firm 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 earned $1.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Barclays set a $200.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, HSBC downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $157.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $228.32.

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.