AGF Management Ltd. Raises Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

AGF Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1,088.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 70,782 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 64,825 shares during the period. AGF Management Ltd.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $14,413,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. United Community Bank raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 43.5% in the 3rd quarter. United Community Bank now owns 544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 27.6% in the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 143,638 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,070,000 after purchasing an additional 31,079 shares during the last quarter. Arjuna Capital purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,588,000. A4 Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $467,000. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 3,058 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $175.42 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $223.61. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $194.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $122.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 111.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.75.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.09.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,190,293.42. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total transaction of $23,177,738.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 327,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,878,351.95. This represents a 26.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995 over the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.