ProShare Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

ProShare Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 866,568 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 186,413 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $176,451,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,174,029 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,093,262,000 after purchasing an additional 169,055 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,295,588 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,083,689,000 after purchasing an additional 377,496 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,476,638 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $916,099,000 after buying an additional 54,601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $675,865,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $245.00 price target (up from $228.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $159.32 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $111.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 100.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.75. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $185.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.44.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total value of $23,177,738.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 327,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,878,351.95. This trade represents a 26.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995. 1.40% of the stock is owned by 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.