Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Purchases 3,030 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 130.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,360 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 3,030 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,581,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Webster Bank N. A. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% during the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% in the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. First Pacific Financial lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 421.7% during the third quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 120 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% in the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PANW. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $378.00 to $327.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Truist Financial raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $315.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 167,917 shares of company stock worth $49,395,553 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW traded down $5.03 on Thursday, reaching $288.79. 2,656,761 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,462,316. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.30 and a 12 month high of $380.84. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $290.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.86. The company has a market cap of $93.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.45, a PEG ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.