Swiss National Bank Buys 4,400 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 961,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned 0.30% of Palo Alto Networks worth $328,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,965,000. First Foundation Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.8% during the 1st quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 259 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 4,957 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,408,000 after acquiring an additional 3,599 shares during the last quarter. Cynosure Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $319,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 881 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $250,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $384.76.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $387.00 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $234.15 and a twelve month high of $408.53. The company has a market cap of $126.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.38, a P/E/G ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $359.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.39.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 255,252 shares of company stock worth $89,383,077. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.