Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. Buys 326 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,829 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,275 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 37.7% during the first quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $470,000 after acquiring an additional 753 shares during the period. Finally, Obermeyer Wealth Partners raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 44.8% in the 1st quarter. Obermeyer Wealth Partners now owns 4,480 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $201.00 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $209.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $197.42. The stock has a market cap of $137.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.23, a P/E/G ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 0.95. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,008,788.94. The trade was a 40.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 1,215,830 shares of company stock valued at $249,160,428 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Piper Sandler raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. UBS Group increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Twenty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.14.

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.