Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Has $3.01 Million Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 103.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 16,530 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,420 shares during the period. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. HSBC downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

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

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $180.93 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $186.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $184.77. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $132.50 and a one year high of $208.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.79 billion, a PE ratio of 101.93, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. 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.