Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 14.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 66,217 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 8,246 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $22,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth $25,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 352.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% during the third quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1,111.1% during the first quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 109 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $365.39 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $118.97 billion, a PE ratio of 50.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $233.81 and a 1 year high of $384.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $327.94.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on PANW. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $376.82.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.77, for a total transaction of $11,439,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,187,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $377,373,165.59. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.77, for a total transaction of $11,439,720.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,187,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $377,373,165.59. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 351,452 shares of company stock worth $118,643,279 in the last quarter. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks 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.