Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Sold by Advisory Resource Group

Advisory Resource Group lessened its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,183 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 48 shares during the quarter. Advisory Resource Group’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $813,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 3,443 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $688,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $2,239,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 174.2% during the 1st quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 170 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 283,151 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $39,510,000 after buying an additional 22,178 shares during the period. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $763,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 24th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 21st. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 21st. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, August 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.71.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.10, for a total value of $63,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,219,840.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 250 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.10, for a total transaction of $63,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,219,840.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.88, for a total transaction of $78,936.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,655,334.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 168,140 shares of company stock valued at $40,276,328. 3.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.6 %

Palo Alto Networks stock traded up $1.48 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $241.68. 131,494 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,857,285. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $236.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $217.65. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $132.22 and a 52 week high of $258.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.58 billion, a PE ratio of 190.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.15. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 51.13%. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.