Stone House Investment Management LLC Makes New $128,000 Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Stone House Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 752 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,712,019,000 after buying an additional 1,541,637 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during 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 during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,324,387,000 after buying an additional 1,088,631 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after buying an additional 2,134,735 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $168.17 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $210.39. The stock has a market cap of $112.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.10, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $193.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.78.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The firm had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $99,940.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 8,632 shares in the company, valued at $1,640,080. The trade was a 5.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.85, for a total transaction of $1,009,250.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 101,135 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,414,099.75. This represents a 4.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 669,248 shares of company stock worth $126,423,337 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. KeyCorp cut Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $496.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Roth Capital started coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $217.07.

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.