Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by AE Wealth Management LLC

AE Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 26.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 39,513 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 8,232 shares during the quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $8,046,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. The trade was a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $176.97 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The company has a market capitalization of $123.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.01, a PEG ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.76. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $194.58.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Securities raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Stephens upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $245.00 price objective (up previously from $228.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.