Hudson Bay Capital Management LP Invests $36.40 Million in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 200,036 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,399,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.3% in the 4th quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC now owns 1,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $257,000 after acquiring an additional 749 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 99.8% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,024 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 72.9% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 9,059 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,648,000 after buying an additional 3,820 shares during the period. HBW Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 131.2% in the 4th quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 1,257 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 103.1% in the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 9,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,664,000 after acquiring an additional 4,642 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.27, for a total transaction of $22,858,894.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 293,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,458,002.70. The trade was a 29.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.06.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $186.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $123.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.31, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $176.07 and its 200 day moving average is $184.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39.

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