Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW is Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS’s 7th Largest Position

Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS decreased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,746 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 5,419 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks makes up about 2.5% of Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $8,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $633,068,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,100,311,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,830 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% in the 2nd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $430,755,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,145 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on PANW. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. New Street Research increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.99.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $190.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $132.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $223.61. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $194.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.25.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 last year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total value of $23,177,738.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 327,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,878,351.95. This trade represents a 26.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 261,248 shares of company stock worth $53,316,149 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.