Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Sells $22,858,894.98 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.27, for a total value of $22,858,894.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 293,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,458,002.70. The trade was a 29.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Lee Klarich also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, April 7th, Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $186.93 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $176.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $184.72. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.01 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39. The firm has a market cap of $123.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 105.31, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 241.2% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 6,714 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 4,746 shares during the last quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 99.8% in the 4th quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. now owns 4,103 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 2,049 shares during the period. Bangor Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 9,318 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 258.7% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 16,359 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,977,000 after purchasing an additional 11,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 88.7% during the fourth quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 749 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $136,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Stephens lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.06.

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.