Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,438 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the period. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,322,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. InterOcean Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC now owns 1,331 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $392,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,188 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,004,000 after purchasing an additional 887 shares in the last quarter. Seven Mile Advisory purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $213,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 1,312 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $387,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berkeley Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,970 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $581,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total value of $16,082,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 174,075 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,659,063. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 174,075 shares in the company, valued at $46,659,063. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 280,193 shares of company stock worth $80,670,132 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.0 %

PANW stock traded down $3.08 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $308.58. The company had a trading volume of 4,526,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,180,038. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $288.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.00. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $188.83 and a 12-month high of $380.84. The company has a market capitalization of $99.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.81, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 1.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 37.81% and a net margin of 31.42%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on PANW shares. Macquarie upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $385.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $317.45.

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.