Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Boosts Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 15.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 61,755 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,123 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $12,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth about $675,865,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in 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. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in 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 worth $430,755,000 after buying an additional 1,041,145 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 30.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,392,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $487,105,000 after acquiring an additional 560,540 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of 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, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Thirty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of PANW opened at $180.18 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $223.61. The company has a market capitalization of $125.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $188.56 and a 200 day moving average of $194.96.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.