Nir Zuk Sells 168,000 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Nir Zuk sold 168,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $387.39, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,821,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $705,730,831.62. This trade represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Nir Zuk also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, October 1st, Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $384.37 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $367.39 and a 200-day moving average of $341.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.05, a P/E/G ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $260.09 and a fifty-two week high of $408.53.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks are going to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after purchasing an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $67,232,000 after acquiring an additional 7,291 shares during the period. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 2,695 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.03.

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.