Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. Purchases 165 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,609 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 165 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks accounts for approximately 1.3% of Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,611,013,000 after purchasing an additional 6,725,148 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $970,736,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,533,419,000 after purchasing an additional 3,841,359 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on PANW. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.7%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $196.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $130.87 billion, a PE ratio of 110.58, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.11. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.01 and a twelve month high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This trade represents a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 789,736 shares of company stock valued at $139,837,528 over the last three months. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.