Welch Group LLC Acquires Shares of 38,906 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Welch Group LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 38,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,922,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PANW. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $633,068,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,100,311,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,830 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% in the second 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 during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.4%

PANW opened at $189.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.93, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.79. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $223.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $201.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $197.29.

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, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on PANW shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective (up from $225.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $220.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, 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 transaction, the director owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 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. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 376,922 shares of company stock worth $77,963,339 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.