Inspire Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 4,687 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Inspire Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,687 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $800,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in 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 buying an additional 6,725,148 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 4,486,654 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 3,841,359 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 98.0% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,158,580 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,120,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,047,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 92.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,951,283 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,895,000 after purchasing an additional 2,862,718 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PANW. Northland Securities lowered 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 report on Wednesday, May 21st. HSBC upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.42.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $203.27 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39. The company has a market cap of $135.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.15, a P/E/G ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $196.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.91.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly 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, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.00, for a total value of $122,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 41,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,452,332. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.86, for a total transaction of $24,258,665.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 235,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,298,914.52. The trade was a 33.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 569,248 shares of company stock valued at $111,279,829 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.