Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Grows Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 105.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 333,294 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 171,126 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina owned 0.05% of Palo Alto Networks worth $60,646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $36,316,000 after buying an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $1,109,000. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 64,737 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $22,127,000 after buying an additional 5,133 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 45.7% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,593 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empire Financial Management Company LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empire Financial Management Company LLC now owns 4,394 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,502,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on PANW. UBS Group raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, March 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Guggenheim lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.27.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 13.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $173.02 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $182.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $184.83. The company has a market cap of $114.56 billion, a PE ratio of 97.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.07. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $135.18 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $198,214,409.80. This represents a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 939,318 shares of company stock worth $165,384,602 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.