Golden State Equity Partners Boosts Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Golden State Equity Partners raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 12.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,078 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. Golden State Equity Partners’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Pacific Financial raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 421.7% in the third quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 120 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% in the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% in the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% in the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on PANW. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $350.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $305.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $274.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded up $2.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $291.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,246,512 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,487,617. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $287.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $292.10. The firm has a market cap of $94.16 billion, a PE ratio of 45.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 1.19. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $176.30 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. On average, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total transaction of $15,436,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 198,105 shares in the company, valued at $67,955,958.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 167,917 shares of company stock worth $49,395,553. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.