AlphaQuest LLC Buys 221 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 8.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,828 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the quarter. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL now owns 1,828 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $333,000 after buying an additional 914 shares during the last quarter. Argentarii LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,386,000. Horan Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 126.6% in the fourth quarter. Horan Securities Inc. now owns 1,371 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares during the last quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 96.8% in the fourth quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI now owns 3,070 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $559,000 after purchasing an additional 1,510 shares during the period. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on PANW. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.06.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $179.48 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 101.12, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $132.50 and a 12-month high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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.