Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells $136,056.86 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Aparna Bawa sold 554 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.59, for a total transaction of $136,056.86. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,690 shares in the company, valued at approximately $660,637.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Aparna Bawa also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 23rd, Aparna Bawa sold 721 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.75, for a total transaction of $170,696.75.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $240.20 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $74.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 190.63, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.19. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $132.22 and a 1 year high of $258.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $236.34 and a 200 day moving average of $217.65.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 21st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 21st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $264.71.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 104.3% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 423 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 17.5% during the second quarter. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP now owns 117,500 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,021,000 after purchasing an additional 17,500 shares during the period. Sterling Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $302,000. Jag Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 27.6% during the second quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 925 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $15,565,000. Institutional investors own 85.69% of the company’s stock.

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.