D Orazio & Associates Inc. Makes New $219,000 Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

D Orazio & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 646 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Private Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 47.1% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,656 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $561,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares during the period. Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $203,000. Wambolt & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wambolt & Associates LLC now owns 11,489 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,917,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Eagle Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,092,000. Finally, BOKF NA lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% during the second quarter. BOKF NA now owns 37,627 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,756,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total transaction of $500,202.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 19,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,452,097.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total transaction of $500,202.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 19,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,452,097.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.16, for a total transaction of $12,209,760.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,223,567 shares in the company, valued at $414,984,983.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 464,075 shares of company stock worth $154,029,567 in the last quarter. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Daiwa America raised shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $366.08.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $341.77 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $336.03 and a 200-day moving average of $311.64. The company has a market capitalization of $110.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.68, a PEG ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $224.64 and a 52 week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

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.