Kentucky Retirement Systems Trims Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Kentucky Retirement Systems trimmed its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 22,558 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 1,790 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,710,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Nwam LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.8% in the first quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $390,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth about $1,965,000. First Foundation Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.8% in the first quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 259 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 4,957 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after purchasing an additional 3,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cercano Management LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $15,498,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on PANW. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $381.56.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock opened at $387.00 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $359.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $336.07. The firm has a market cap of $126.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.38, a PEG ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $234.15 and a 1 year high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 255,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,383,077. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.