Swedbank AB Purchases 560,540 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 30.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,392,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 560,540 shares during the period. Swedbank AB owned about 0.36% of Palo Alto Networks worth $487,105,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BayBridge Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. BayBridge Capital Group LLC now owns 3,020 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $615,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Optas LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 30.3% in the 3rd quarter. Optas LLC now owns 2,818 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $574,000 after acquiring an additional 656 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 540,158 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $110,021,000 after purchasing an additional 5,386 shares during the last quarter. Anderson Hoagland & Co. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.7% in the third quarter. Anderson Hoagland & Co. now owns 23,341 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,753,000 after buying an additional 6,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tactive Advisors LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $490,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total value of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. This trade represents a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 376,922 shares of company stock valued at $77,963,339 in the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $188.12 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The company has a market capitalization of $131.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.06, a PEG ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $201.09 and its 200 day moving average is $197.20.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS 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.