Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Stake Boosted by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 9.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 119,460 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,910 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $24,324,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $675,865,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,100,311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,830 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% during the 2nd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $430,755,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041,145 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3,881.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 721,157 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,842,000 after buying an additional 703,044 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the 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 approximately $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. Insiders have sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Northland Securities raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Thirty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $159.32 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.05 billion, a PE ratio of 100.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $193.44.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its 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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.