Brevan Howard Capital Management LP Boosts Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP raised its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 37,889 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,113 shares during the period. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,715,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 96.1% during the third quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 149 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 stock was sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total value of $940,900.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. DA Davidson set a $190.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. UBS Group set a $183.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $167.01 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $169.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $189.50. The company has a market capitalization of $136.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.27, a PEG ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 0.78.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal 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.