Braun Stacey Associates Inc. Sells 10,887 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Braun Stacey Associates Inc. lessened its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 122,281 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 10,887 shares during the period. Braun Stacey Associates Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $24,899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $633,068,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth about $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,100,311,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,830 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% during the second quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $430,755,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,145 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PANW. Stephens lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Barclays raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Thirty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $184.20 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61. The stock has a market cap of $128.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.58, a PEG ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $197.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.71.

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

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total transaction of $23,177,738.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 327,645 shares in the company, valued at $62,878,351.95. This trade represents a 26.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 381,222 shares of company stock worth $78,762,727 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.