Cinctive Capital Management LP Buys New Shares in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Cinctive Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 6,001 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,222,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $29,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. MTM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $167.45 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $136.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 92.51, a P/E/G ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $169.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.35.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.81 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,190,293.42. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 298,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This represents a 28.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Truist Financial set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. HSBC decreased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 target price (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.