Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 26,958 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 427 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. MV Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 233 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management now owns 1,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $448,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 1,061 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $313,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 206 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW traded up $2.47 on Friday, hitting $291.26. 290,979 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,398,395. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $289.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.84. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $176.30 and a 52 week high of $380.84. The company has a market cap of $94.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Loop Capital downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $300.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Wedbush raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Northland Securities downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $275.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $290.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.82.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.