Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 754 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,780 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 754 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,821,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $751,276,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.8% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,376,601 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $673,731,000 after buying an additional 92,760 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.3% during the first quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 2,591,901 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $517,706,000 after buying an additional 419,411 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 80.0% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,559,318 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $357,144,000 after buying an additional 1,137,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,197,806 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $306,682,000 after buying an additional 384,300 shares during the last quarter. 85.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 2.3 %

NASDAQ PANW opened at $240.20 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $236.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $217.65. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $132.22 and a 12-month high of $258.88. The company has a market cap of $74.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 190.63, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 51.13%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.15 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.51 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $250.00 in a report on Friday, June 9th. TheStreet cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $269.00 to $285.00 in a report on Friday, June 30th. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $264.71.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.59, for a total transaction of $136,056.86. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $660,637.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.10, for a total value of $63,775.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,219,840.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.59, for a total transaction of $136,056.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,690 shares in the company, valued at approximately $660,637.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 168,140 shares of company stock worth $40,276,328. 3.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.