Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 60 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,396 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $412,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PANW. First Pacific Financial boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 421.7% during the third quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 120 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% in the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% during the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% during the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $281.68 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $293.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.51. The stock has a market cap of $91.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $176.30 and a one year high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

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.