First Horizon Corp Makes New Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

First Horizon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,978 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $606,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $31,000. 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.0%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $190.85 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $133.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.79, a PEG ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $192.76 and its 200-day moving average is $195.89.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, November 24th. UBS Group set a $215.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $245.00 target price (up from $228.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $229.09.

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.