Dara Capital US Inc. Buys New Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Dara Capital US Inc. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 5,771 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,063,000. Palo Alto Networks accounts for about 0.9% of Dara Capital US Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $948,000 after buying an additional 3,275 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $713,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the period. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 560 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $115,000 after buying an additional 555 shares during the period. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 4,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $900,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.95.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $802,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 150,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,103,105. The trade was a 3.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John P. Key sold 1,572 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.32, for a total value of $272,459.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,466,400. The trade was a 7.29% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 30,356 shares of company stock worth $4,981,575. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $155.73 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $160.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.61. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $139.57 and a 52-week high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $127.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.04, a PEG ratio of 5.62 and a beta of 0.77.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.81 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal 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.