Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Has $16.78 Million Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 82,397 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,999 shares during the quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $16,778,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PANW. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 29.4% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 32,155 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,547,000 after buying an additional 7,301 shares during the last quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $358,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,234,551 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $457,279,000 after acquiring an additional 163,718 shares during the last quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.2% during the 2nd quarter. Richmond Investment Services LLC now owns 3,286 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $672,000 after acquiring an additional 1,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4,524.0% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 547,944 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $112,131,000 after purchasing an additional 536,094 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. The trade was a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total value of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 381,222 shares of company stock valued at $78,762,727 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. New Street Research raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $184.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $128.39 billion, a PE ratio of 116.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.79. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $197.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $196.71. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current 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.