Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Sold by PGGM Investments

PGGM Investments reduced its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,499 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,653 shares during the quarter. PGGM Investments’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,224,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PANW. First Pacific Financial grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 421.7% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% in the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% in the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% in the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock traded up $2.63 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $291.42. The company had a trading volume of 2,246,512 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,487,617. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $176.30 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The company has a market capitalization of $94.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $287.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $292.35.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 167,917 shares of company stock worth $49,395,553 in the last 90 days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.82.

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.