Strategic Planning Group LLC Boosts Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Strategic Planning Group LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 43.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 66,333 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,149 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks comprises about 1.8% of Strategic Planning Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Strategic Planning Group LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $13,507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $633,068,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,100,311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,830 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% during the second quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $430,755,000 after buying an additional 1,041,145 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.94, for a total value of $26,321,485.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 356,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,675,777.46. The trade was a 25.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. The trade was a 14.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 261,248 shares of company stock worth $53,316,149. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Mizuho set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $157.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.99.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 4.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $193.98 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $135.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 122.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a 50 day moving average of $195.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $196.29. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next?generation firewalls as a core on?premises capability, alongside cloud?delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.