Guardian Partners Inc. Buys Shares of 6,900 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 6,900 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,193,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Dallas Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 2,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. RB Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,492 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $852,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $792,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $676,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zega Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Zega Financial LLC now owns 5,997 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,050,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $182.32 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $120.71 billion, a PE ratio of 102.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $186.59 and a 200-day moving average of $185.05. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $132.50 and a 52-week 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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $455.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.