Concord Wealth Partners Acquires 80 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Concord Wealth Partners grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the quarter. Concord Wealth Partners’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $548,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 106.4% in the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,378 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 94.3% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 11,661 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,122,000 after buying an additional 5,658 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 21,354 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,886,000 after buying an additional 11,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,410,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, May 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Stephens downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.05, for a total transaction of $160,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 42,033 shares in the company, valued at $8,450,734.65. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $99,940.00. Following the sale, the director owned 8,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 569,248 shares of company stock worth $111,279,829 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $192.59 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.01 and a 1 year high of $208.39. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $195.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $185.85. The firm has a market cap of $128.42 billion, a PE ratio of 110.05, a P/E/G ratio of 5.37 and a beta of 0.97.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.95%. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

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.