Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,145 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,707 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $10,876,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Dagco Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.24.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $202.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $138.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.42, a PEG ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 0.95. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $209.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $197.32.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total value of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,629,805.65. This represents a 4.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total transaction of $23,081,119.14. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,008,788.94. The trade was a 40.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,215,830 shares of company stock valued at $249,160,428. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.