M.D. Sass LLC Purchases 8,516 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

M.D. Sass LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,228 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,516 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks comprises 0.6% of M.D. Sass LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. M.D. Sass LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MONECO Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 3,039 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $619,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Bond & Devick Financial Network Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bond & Devick Financial Network Inc. now owns 3,633 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the period. Waterloo Capital L.P. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 21.8% during the third quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 10,383 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,114,000 after acquiring an additional 1,858 shares during the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 195.4% during the third quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 12,334 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,511,000 after purchasing an additional 8,159 shares during the period. Finally, Portside Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.2% in the third quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. HSBC lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $157.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, 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. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.09.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 298,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This represents a 28.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $154.77 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $193.79. The company has a market cap of $107.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.96, a PEG ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.75.

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

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.