Mason & Associates Inc Acquires 95 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Mason & Associates Inc boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,935 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the quarter. Mason & Associates Inc’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $501,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 64.0% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 141 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 22.4% during the fourth 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. Adero Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the first quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 1,556 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Snider Financial Group grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 17,729 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,025,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 906 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $165,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Stephens lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.00.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. The trade was a 41.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 789,736 shares of company stock worth $139,837,528. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $196.27 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $184.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $185.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.58, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.01 and a 52-week high of $208.39.

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