FourThought Financial Partners LLC Makes New $290,000 Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,594 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $290,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,609,486,000 after acquiring an additional 220,900 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,005,161 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $685,364,000 after purchasing an additional 31,595 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $333,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $297,450,000 after buying an additional 848,127 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $188.01 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $132.50 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39. The business has a 50-day moving average of $186.59 and a 200 day moving average of $184.08. The firm has a market cap of $124.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 105.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. As a group, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $18,191,542.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 358,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,353,042.65. This trade represents a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $199,159,581.28. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.