Sunpointe LLC Acquires Shares of 1,663 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Sunpointe LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,663 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $268,851,000 after acquiring an additional 129,371 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 6,541 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,236,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the period. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 11.1% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 351 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Calton & Associates Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 59.2% during the third quarter. Calton & Associates Inc. now owns 1,094 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $374,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $705,730,831.62. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on PANW. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays cut their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Three investment 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $205.19 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $208.39. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $182.68. The firm has a market cap of $134.65 billion, a PE ratio of 115.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

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.