Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Sells 121,276 Shares of Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total value of $36,334,289.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,895,983.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Lee Klarich also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, April 5th, Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00.
• On Monday, March 11th, Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.33, for a total value of $17,059,800.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of PANW traded down $2.51 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $303.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,106,097 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,233,852. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.75 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The company has a market cap of $97.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a fifty day moving average of $285.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $294.47.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GSG Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 5,160 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,478,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 4,178 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 148.9% during the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 189,801 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $44,497,000 after buying an additional 113,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% in the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 137,104 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,143,000 after purchasing an additional 735 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on PANW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $274.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI lifted 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 report on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $290.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.82.

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.