Banque Pictet & Cie SA Has $13.43 Million Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Banque Pictet & Cie SA increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 72,894 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,360 shares during the period. Banque Pictet & Cie SA’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $13,427,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Klingman & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the third quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $276,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% in the third quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of several analyst reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. UBS Group set a $183.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.95.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $160.67 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $223.61. The stock has a market cap of $131.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.78 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $162.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $186.54.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The company’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total value of $23,070,311.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 298,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $57,096,383.61. This represents a 28.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total transaction of $3,729,476.44. Following the sale, the director owned 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,631,525. This trade represents a 30.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 144,252 shares of company stock worth $26,947,635 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.