Absolute Capital Management LLC Lowers Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Absolute Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,903 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks makes up 1.8% of Absolute Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Absolute Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,036,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PANW. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the 4th quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 233 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management now owns 1,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $448,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Argonautica Private Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Argonautica Private Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,527 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $450,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 1,061 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $313,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, January 29th. Redburn Atlantic raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.82.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 167,917 shares of company stock worth $49,395,553 over the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ PANW opened at $291.42 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $176.30 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.16 billion, a PE ratio of 45.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $287.61 and its 200 day moving average is $292.35.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

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.