Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Sold by Eastern Bank

Eastern Bank trimmed its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 246,445 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 4,631 shares during the period. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $45,395,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Klingman & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the third quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. PTM Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $276,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on PANW shares. HSBC lowered their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Robert W. Baird set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price target (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Barclays set a $200.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total transaction of $3,729,476.44. Following the sale, the director directly owned 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,631,525. This represents a 30.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora purchased 68,085 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $146.87 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,643.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 343,394 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,434,276.78. The trade was a 24.73% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 144,252 shares of company stock worth $26,947,635 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 6.0%

Shares of PANW opened at $147.02 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $119.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.23, a PEG ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $164.41 and a 200-day moving average of $187.36. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the company posted $0.81 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.