Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,431 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,325 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after buying an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,533,419,000 after buying an additional 3,841,359 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after buying an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,324,387,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,631 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PANW. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% 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, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total value of $18,252,574.62. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at $48,629,704.62. This trade represents a 27.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $190.78 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.01 and a 12-month high of $208.39. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $178.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $184.96.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.