Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys 4,136 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 74,819 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,136 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $13,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 5.3% in the second quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 10.3% in the second quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 15,087 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,087,000 after buying an additional 1,407 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $169.74 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $223.61. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $168.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $188.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $138.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 93.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.10 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at $29,190,293.42. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at $8,502,184.05. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.