Plato Investment Management Ltd Has $1.64 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,813 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,643,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after acquiring an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,232,000 after acquiring an additional 7,291 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at $24,414,000. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% in the second quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 2,695 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. BTIG Research raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $366.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.28.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total value of $20,698,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,854,924.82. This trade represents a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 255,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,383,077. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $394.39 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $234.15 and a twelve month high of $408.53. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $357.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $335.01.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.