Evolutionary Tree Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Evolutionary Tree Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 86.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 8,976 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,168 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks makes up about 1.7% of Evolutionary Tree Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Evolutionary Tree Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,633,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $548,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 94.3% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 11,661 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,122,000 after buying an additional 5,658 shares during the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 21,354 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,886,000 after acquiring an additional 11,095 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 82.1% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,345,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $244,871,000 after acquiring an additional 606,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mosley Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 116.2% during the fourth quarter. Mosley Wealth Management now owns 3,023 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $561,000 after acquiring an additional 1,625 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PANW. StockNews.com lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Barclays reduced their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. HSBC raised Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.52.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $168.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $111.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.84, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.07. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $135.18 and a 1 year high of $208.39. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $184.79.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This trade represents a 41.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 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 transaction of $18,191,542.15. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 358,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,353,042.65. The trade was a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 939,318 shares of company stock valued at $165,384,602 over the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks 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.