Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 819,592 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.12% of Palo Alto Networks worth $167,721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MTM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $33,000. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $37,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total value of $153,979.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,505 shares in the company, valued at $10,449,674.85. This represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.94, for a total value of $26,321,485.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 356,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,675,777.46. The trade was a 25.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 1,215,130 shares of company stock worth $249,031,488 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on PANW. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 price target (up previously from $236.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (up from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $190.32 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $207.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $197.21. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The stock has a market cap of $132.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.45, a PEG ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.95.

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

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.