Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by Exchange Traded Concepts LLC

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 29.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,155 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,301 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,547,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $955,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 1,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $257,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.7%

PANW opened at $188.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $131.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.79. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $201.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $197.20.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total value of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,864,398.95. This trade represents a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 376,922 shares of company stock worth $77,963,339 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.