Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Buys 19,975 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 91.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,837 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,975 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,139,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 64.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 141 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 322 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Snider Financial Group raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 17,729 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,025,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 906 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $165,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 511 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $93,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 321,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,854,038.83. This trade represents a 41.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 789,736 shares of company stock valued at $139,837,528 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. HSBC upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Stephens lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $196.27 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.01 and a 52-week high of $208.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.87 billion, a PE ratio of 110.58, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.06.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal 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.