Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Grows Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 101.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,870 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after purchasing an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $970,736,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $192.98 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.77 billion, a PE ratio of 108.72, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $177.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $185.16. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.01 and a 1 year high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Stephens cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total value of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 321,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total value of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.