Pacer Advisors Inc. Raises Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 224,043 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,423 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $45,620,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total transaction of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,864,398.95. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total value of $25,594,426.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 149,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,616,344.80. This trade represents a 44.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 376,922 shares of company stock valued at $77,963,339. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $245.00 price objective (up previously from $228.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $220.00 price target (down from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Stephens raised their price objective 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, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of PANW stock opened at $188.45 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $199.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $197.01. The company has a market cap of $131.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.79. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.