Promus Capital LLC Makes New $223,000 Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Tradewinds LLC. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $791,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 750 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.4% during the third quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 715 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $244,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% during the third quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 2,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $728,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Opinicus Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Opinicus Capital Inc. now owns 2,138 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $731,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. OTR Global restated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price target (down from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $184.28 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $186.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.74. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $132.50 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The firm has a market cap of $122.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. This trade represents a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.