Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 101.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,870 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,533,419,000 after purchasing an additional 3,841,359 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,324,387,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,631 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.0%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $192.98 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.72, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $177.37 and a 200 day moving average of $185.16. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.01 and a 52 week high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for 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, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JMP Securities boosted their price target 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. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.46.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total value of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by 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.