J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Boosts Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 94.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,038 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 7,318 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,736,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 834 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $268,851,000 after acquiring an additional 129,371 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at $253,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 6,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,187,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on PANW. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. BTIG Research downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, OTR Global reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 4.1 %

Shares of PANW opened at $208.28 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $186.84 and its 200 day moving average is $182.29. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.04 and a 12-month high of $208.35. The company has a market capitalization of $136.67 billion, a PE ratio of 54.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,744,323.20. The trade was a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.