Cambria Investment Management L.P. Acquires New Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Cambria Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 16,007 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,259,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $25,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 96.1% in the 3rd quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 149 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Caitlin John LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Palisade Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,190,293.42. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 298,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This trade represents a 28.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. New Street Research cut their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Arete Research upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Argus raised Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.5%

PANW opened at $169.74 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The business has a 50 day moving average of $168.30 and a 200-day moving average of $188.93. The stock has a market cap of $138.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.78, a PEG ratio of 6.10 and a beta of 0.78.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The business had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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.