Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC Buys 22,607 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 154.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 37,208 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,607 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks accounts for about 1.3% of Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,770,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2,933.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 91 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 97.2% during the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 140 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $176.32 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $185.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $184.73. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $132.50 and a one year high of $208.39. The firm has a market cap of $116.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.34, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811 in the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.