Whipplewood Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 416 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $268,851,000 after buying an additional 129,371 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $36,316,000 after buying an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 613.9% in the third quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.8% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 5,364 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,833,000 after buying an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.9% in the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 898 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. This trade represents a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BTIG Research downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, February 10th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ PANW opened at $190.43 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $132.50 and a 12 month high of $208.39. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $186.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $184.32. The stock has a market cap of $126.08 billion, a PE ratio of 107.29, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.