FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Buys 159 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,491 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in 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 grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in 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 grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in 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. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% in 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 currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.7%

PANW opened at $196.27 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $130.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.58, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s 50 day moving average is $184.15 and its 200 day moving average is $185.01. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.36, for a total transaction of $19,336,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,343,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $646,502,253.76. The trade was a 2.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 789,736 shares of company stock worth $139,837,528. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.