Railway Pension Investments Ltd Acquires 470,100 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Railway Pension Investments Ltd increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 921,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 470,100 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks accounts for about 2.5% of Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Railway Pension Investments Ltd owned about 0.14% of Palo Alto Networks worth $187,637,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $6,953,000. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 93.6% in the third quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,008 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $409,000 after acquiring an additional 971 shares in the last quarter. WT Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.5% during the third quarter. WT Wealth Management now owns 1,182 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $241,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 29,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,918,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 1,428 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective (up previously from $228.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. DA Davidson set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, December 19th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $179.37 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $196.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.52. The company has a market cap of $125.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 113.53, a PEG ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.76.

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

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. This trade represents a 1.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 260,448 shares of company stock valued at $53,168,301. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.