Lbp Am Sa Grows Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Lbp Am Sa lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 17.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 305,744 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 45,991 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks comprises approximately 0.8% of Lbp Am Sa’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Lbp Am Sa’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $62,256,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,100,311,000 after buying an additional 1,240,830 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,174,029 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,093,262,000 after buying an additional 169,055 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,295,588 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,083,689,000 after acquiring an additional 377,496 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,476,638 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $916,099,000 after acquiring an additional 54,601 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $675,865,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related 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 transaction of $26,321,485.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 356,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,675,777.46. The trade was a 25.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock worth $76,386,460 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $180.18 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $223.61. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $188.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $194.96. The company has a market capitalization of $125.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.04, a PEG ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.76.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The company’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (up from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, January 12th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks 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.