First Bank & Trust Grows Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

First Bank & Trust increased its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 100.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,524 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 762 shares during the quarter. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $277,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tradewinds LLC. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $791,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $119,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Partners LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Partners LLC now owns 10,945 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,741,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Klingman & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 750 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $199,159,581.28. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at $705,730,831.62. This trade represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.1 %

PANW stock opened at $198.81 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $187.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.84. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.04 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The firm has a market cap of $131.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.01, a PEG ratio of 5.96 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. Research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $196.40 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. OTR Global reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.70.

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.