624 Shares in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Bought by Kestra Investment Management LLC

Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 624 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Braun Stacey Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 96.0% during the 4th quarter. Braun Stacey Associates Inc. now owns 150,017 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,297,000 after buying an additional 73,490 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 64.7% during the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 41,759 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,598,000 after purchasing an additional 16,405 shares during the last quarter. Hudson Canyon Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,856,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 111.4% in the 4th quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 16,664 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,032,000 after purchasing an additional 8,782 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. BTIG Research cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price objective (down from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $198.81 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $187.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.84. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.04 and a 52 week high of $208.39. The stock has a market cap of $131.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.01, a PEG ratio of 5.96 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. On average, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $18,191,542.15. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 358,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,353,042.65. The trade was a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.