Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells $3,729,476.44 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director James Goetz sold 22,684 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the transaction, the director owned 52,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,631,525. This trade represents a 30.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $168.06 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $170.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $189.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $137.14 billion, a PE ratio of 92.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.96 and a beta of 0.78. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Arete Research raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, HSBC reduced their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,415,364,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,568,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,776 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $340,883,000. Finally, Employees Provident Fund Board bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $281,542,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.