TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 488,542 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 17,075 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Palo Alto Networks worth $101,014,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $675,865,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,100,311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,830 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% during the 2nd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $430,755,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041,145 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 30.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,392,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $487,105,000 after buying an additional 560,540 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on PANW. Mizuho set a $220.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. DA Davidson set a $240.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, December 19th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Stephens raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $183.74 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.29, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.80. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.94, for a total value of $26,321,485.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 356,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,675,777.46. The trade was a 25.31% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.