SP Asset Management LLC Buys New Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

SP Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 13,036 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,654,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stephens increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective (up from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $175.42 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $187.05 and its 200-day moving average is $194.46. The company has a market cap of $122.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 111.03, a PEG ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.75.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at $29,190,293.42. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next?generation firewalls as a core on?premises capability, alongside cloud?delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.