Cerity Partners LLC Grows Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 873,126 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,547 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned about 0.13% of Palo Alto Networks worth $178,676,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. St. Clair Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $496,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $955,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. GSG Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,154,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.6% in the second quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 1,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $257,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total value of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,629,805.65. The trade was a 4.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,215,830 shares of company stock worth $249,260,680. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on PANW shares. Scotiabank raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $198.84 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $205.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $197.25. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 125.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.70 and a beta of 0.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

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.