Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Acquires 9,824 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 227,884 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,824 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC owned 0.07% of Palo Alto Networks worth $67,199,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,511,732 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,215,410,000 after purchasing an additional 304,272 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,430,299 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $804,199,000 after purchasing an additional 86,995 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,616,803 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $771,643,000 after acquiring an additional 1,187,915 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 29,086.9% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,057,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $606,854,000 after purchasing an additional 2,050,917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,662,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $389,832,000 after purchasing an additional 36,859 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $290.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW traded up $0.89 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $296.21. The company had a trading volume of 3,436,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,292,921. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $285.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $293.01. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $177.09 and a 52 week high of $380.84. The company has a market capitalization of $95.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 158,917 shares of company stock valued at $44,335,843. 3.30% of the stock is 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.