Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Raises Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 102.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 156 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $28,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 97.2% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 140 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 246.3% in the fourth quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 142 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Abound Wealth Management boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 97.3% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% in the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $216.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, HSBC downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $89,532,411.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. The trade was a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $18,191,542.15. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 358,197 shares in the company, valued at $65,353,042.65. The trade was a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.3 %

PANW stock opened at $190.39 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.26, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $186.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $183.92. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $132.50 and a 52 week high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. On average, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.