Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 376,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 52,464 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.06% of Palo Alto Networks worth $76,667,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PANW. Mizuho set a $220.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.1%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $183.74 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $187.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $194.80. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.29, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.76.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,190,293.42. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at $8,502,184.05. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock worth $76,386,460 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.