Great Lakes Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,466 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 5,069 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 26,651 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582 shares during the period. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 608.1% in the third quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 2,110 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% during the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 488,542 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $101,014,000 after acquiring an additional 17,075 shares during the period. one8zero8 LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth $420,000. Finally, JSF Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.7% in the third quarter. JSF Financial LLC now owns 3,101 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 price target (up from $236.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price target (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Stephens upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $240.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.4%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $176.97 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $187.22 and a 200-day moving average of $194.58. The stock has a market cap of $123.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.76.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. The trade was a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 298,887 shares in the company, valued at $57,096,383.61. The trade was a 28.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks 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.