Cetera Trust Company N.A Acquires New Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 174 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nikulski Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Nikulski Financial Inc. now owns 16,635 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,905,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 100,666 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,684,000 after buying an additional 20,402 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,799 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,184,000 after buying an additional 1,460 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 29,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,563,000 after buying an additional 1,420 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 5,523 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,629,000 after buying an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PANW. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Piper Sandler downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $350.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Capital One Financial downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $302.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total transaction of $15,436,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,955,958.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total transaction of $15,436,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 167,917 shares of company stock worth $49,395,553 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $281.68 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $293.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $291.51. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $176.30 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The stock has a market cap of $91.01 billion, a PE ratio of 44.01, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. Research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.