D.A. Davidson & CO. Has $14.54 Million Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 71,408 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,268 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $14,540,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. St. Clair Advisors LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the 2nd 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 during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the second quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $496,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequent Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the third quarter. Sequent Asset Management LLC now owns 1,306 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total value of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks 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 in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 260,448 shares of company stock worth $53,168,301 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. New Street Research boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Mizuho set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $227.06.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $182.12 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $196.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.94 billion, a PE ratio of 115.27, a PEG ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.