Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) CAO Josh Paul Sells 700 Shares

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) CAO Josh Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total transaction of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock opened at $189.88 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $206.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $197.23. The company has a market capitalization of $132.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 120.18, a PEG ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.79. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Klingman & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the third quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the second quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $496,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PANW. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $248.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, November 17th. HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $157.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.09.

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.