VestGen Advisors LLC Has $5.10 Million Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

VestGen Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,912 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the quarter. VestGen Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,098,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $358,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 87.2% during the 2nd quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC now owns 3,286 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $672,000 after purchasing an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Oak Associates Ltd. OH bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $904,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 25.3% during the 2nd quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 205,053 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $41,957,000 after buying an additional 41,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $190.32 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $207.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $197.25. The company has a market capitalization of $132.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total transaction of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at $34,008,788.94. This represents a 40.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,215,130 shares of company stock worth $249,031,488. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.