Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by Brevan Howard Capital Management LP

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 15.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,889 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,113 shares during the period. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,715,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PANW. Klingman & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $434,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $558,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. PTM Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $276,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,631,525. This represents a 30.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction 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 represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $167.01 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $136.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $169.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $189.50.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The company had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PANW. Arete Research raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Northland Securities upped their target price 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. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective (down from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, HSBC dropped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks 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.