Wealthfront Advisers LLC Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 66,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,079 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $13,624,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Arista Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 52.8% in the third quarter. Arista Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,446 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $905,000 after buying an additional 1,536 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 22,857 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,652 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 55,278 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,255,000 after acquiring an additional 6,762 shares during the period. Marest Capital LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $210,000. Finally, Proactive Wealth Strategies LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 20.2% during the third quarter. Proactive Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 26,670 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,431,000 after purchasing an additional 4,478 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total value of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Evercore increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. DA Davidson set a $240.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Stephens upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.36.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.3%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $165.51 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $192.93. The stock has a market cap of $115.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.75. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.