Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 23.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,953 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,762,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,269,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,290,270,000 after buying an additional 1,253,589 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,736,916 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,055,031,000 after buying an additional 505,924 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,528,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,532,902,000 after buying an additional 36,511 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 11.5% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,906,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,202,776,000 after buying an additional 611,375 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,037,320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $822,079,000 after buying an additional 17,394 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. New Street Research reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Argus upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. UBS Group set a $183.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $224.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.95.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 4.9%

PANW stock opened at $169.87 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $161.41 and a 200-day moving average of $185.31. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 93.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.77.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the sale, the director directly 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. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora bought 68,085 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $146.87 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,643.95. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 343,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,434,276.78. This represents a 24.73% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 149,552 shares of company stock valued at $27,779,427 over the last three months. 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.