Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Sold by Clough Capital Partners L P

Clough Capital Partners L P reduced its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 46.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 39,279 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 33,464 shares during the period. Clough Capital Partners L P’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,269,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,290,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,589 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.5% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,906,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,202,776,000 after buying an additional 611,375 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during 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 buying an additional 54,601 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,037,320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $822,079,000 after buying an additional 17,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 3,532,201 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $750,875,000 after buying an additional 708,332 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. New Street Research reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.19.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,631,525. The trade was a 30.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,502,184.05. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 149,252 shares of company stock worth $27,888,535 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $167.01 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The firm has a market cap of $136.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s 50-day moving average is $169.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.50.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.