Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Decreases Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC trimmed its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 541,945 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 9,395 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $110,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $633,068,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,240,830 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% in 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 buying an additional 1,041,145 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $182.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.27, a PEG ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $196.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $196.40. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.06.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total value of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,190,293.42. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 260,448 shares of company stock valued at $53,168,301 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.