Sivia Capital Partners LLC Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 54.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 64.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 141 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 322 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Snider Financial Group lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 17,729 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,025,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 906 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $165,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 511 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at $48,629,704.62. This trade represents a 27.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 789,736 shares of company stock valued at $139,837,528. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of PANW opened at $199.60 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $133.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.45, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $180.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.92. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.01 and a 12-month high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The company’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.