Northwest Wealth Management LLC Has $357,000 Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Northwest Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 171.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,962 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,238 shares during the period. Northwest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $357,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 99.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 60,610 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,029,000 after buying an additional 30,205 shares in the last quarter. Renasant Bank bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $552,000. Blume Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 91.2% in the 4th quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,350 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $246,000 after buying an additional 644 shares in the last quarter. Atala Financial Inc bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $342,000. Finally, LBP AM SA increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 110.8% in the 4th quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 222,634 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $40,510,000 after buying an additional 117,000 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on PANW shares. HSBC lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $89,532,411.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. The trade was a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.8 %

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $176.32 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $132.50 and a 12 month high of $208.39. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $185.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $184.73. The company has a market cap of $116.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.34, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.