NTV Asset Management LLC Increases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

NTV Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 116.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,632 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,731 shares during the period. NTV Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,935,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 97.2% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 140 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 246.3% in the fourth quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 142 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Abound Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 97.3% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% in the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating and set a $196.40 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, OTR Global restated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 4.1 %

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $208.28 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $136.67 billion, a PE ratio of 54.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.04 and a twelve month high of $208.35. The company’s 50 day moving average is $186.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.29.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released 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. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $89,532,411.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $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 quarter, insiders have sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.