Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stake Increased by Alta Wealth Advisors LLC

Alta Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,745 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Horizon Family Wealth Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Horizon Family Wealth Inc. now owns 2,463 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $726,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the 4th quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 204 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 233 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parisi Gray Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management now owns 1,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $448,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.39.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW traded up $10.16 on Monday, reaching $321.60. 4,714,900 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,162,855. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $290.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $300.56. The firm has a market cap of $104.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.74, a P/E/G ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 1.18. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $201.17 and a 12 month high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction 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 approximately $7,629,160. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were 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 owns 166,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,895,983.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 278,326 shares of company stock worth $80,147,130 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

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.