First United Bank & Trust Buys 530 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

First United Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,738 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the quarter. First United Bank & Trust’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $638,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% during 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 buying an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,611,013,000 after buying an additional 6,725,148 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position 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 worth $1,533,419,000 after buying an additional 3,841,359 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after buying an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,324,387,000 after buying an additional 1,088,631 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of 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 downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Roth Capital started coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. The trade was a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.14, for a total transaction of $23,567,838.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 264,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,564,964.44. This trade represents a 31.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 789,736 shares of company stock worth $139,837,528 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.8%

PANW stock opened at $194.39 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.09. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.01 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.62 billion, a PE ratio of 109.52, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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.