Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Grows Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 186,631 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,107 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned about 0.06% of Palo Alto Networks worth $55,034,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 550.9% during the 4th quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 56,709 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $16,722,000 after buying an additional 47,997 shares during the last quarter. Sepio Capital LP increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Sepio Capital LP now owns 944 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $278,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Skopos Labs Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $375,000. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 69.7% during the fourth quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 8,034 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,369,000 after acquiring an additional 3,299 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 28,805 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,494,000 after purchasing an additional 4,557 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $327.00 to $334.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.39.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW traded up $10.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $321.60. The stock had a trading volume of 4,714,975 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,984,595. The company has a market capitalization of $104.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.18. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $201.17 and a 1-year high of $380.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $290.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $300.15.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total value of $16,082,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares in the company, valued at $46,659,063. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total value of $10,376,640.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 278,326 shares of company stock worth $80,147,130 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

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.