Wealthspire Advisors LLC Buys 640 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 17.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 640 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,269,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Webster Bank N. A. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% during the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% in the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% in the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $274.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Capital One Financial downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $302.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW traded up $4.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $299.79. The company had a trading volume of 226,249 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,154,199. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $186.75 and a one year high of $380.84. The firm has a market cap of $96.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.20, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $285.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $294.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,629,160. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total value of $36,334,289.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at $49,895,983.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 280,193 shares of company stock valued at $80,670,132. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.