Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by Lmcg Investments LLC

Lmcg Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 512.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,501 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,747 shares during the quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $8,750,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,736,916 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,055,031,000 after purchasing an additional 505,924 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,528,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,532,902,000 after purchasing an additional 36,511 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 11.5% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,906,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,202,776,000 after purchasing an additional 611,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,356,617 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $802,691,000 after purchasing an additional 319,751 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on PANW. Benchmark began coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. DA Davidson set a $190.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $224.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.64.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $802,100.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 150,250 shares in the company, valued at $24,103,105. This trade represents a 3.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora bought 68,085 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were bought at an average price of $146.87 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,643.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 343,394 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,434,276.78. This represents a 24.73% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 30,356 shares of company stock worth $4,981,575 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $183.68 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $164.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.69. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $223.61. The firm has a market cap of $149.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 0.77.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.