Sowell Financial Services LLC Reduces Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Sowell Financial Services LLC decreased its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 39.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,537 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 8,121 shares during the quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,553,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. St. Clair Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $3,233,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC raised its holdings 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. Finally, Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.6% in the 2nd 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 period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $220.00 price target (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. HSBC cut Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $157.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up previously from $236.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Northland Securities lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective (up previously from $228.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.20.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total transaction of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. This represents a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 376,922 shares of company stock valued at $77,963,339. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.7%

PANW stock opened at $188.45 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $199.94 and a 200 day moving average of $197.03. The firm has a market cap of $131.35 billion, a PE ratio of 119.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.79. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.