Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Raises Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 376,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 52,464 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $76,667,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,190,293.42. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on PANW. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, January 5th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.1%

PANW opened at $183.74 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $187.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $194.80. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The firm has a market cap of $128.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.76.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The business’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.