Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) CEO Sells $89,532,411.35 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. This trade represents a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Nikesh Arora also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, January 6th, Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total transaction of $31,730,609.68.
• On Friday, January 3rd, Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW traded up $3.45 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $186.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,820,132 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,028,804. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $207.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $187.09 and its 200-day moving average is $180.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $122.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.66, a P/E/G ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bailard Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 97.4% during the 4th quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 69,917 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,722,000 after buying an additional 34,503 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.6% during the fourth quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 7,542 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,372,000 after acquiring an additional 3,856 shares during the last quarter. IFG Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $629,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 193.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 2,854 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 95.9% during the 4th quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,952 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $128,819,000 after purchasing an additional 346,584 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $212.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $195.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $217.50 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong 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 $200.85.

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.