Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Sells $17,755,800.00 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total transaction of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $47,055,533.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Lee Klarich also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, July 8th, Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total transaction of $42,165,110.00.
• On Thursday, June 6th, Lee Klarich sold 800 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.21, for a total transaction of $240,168.00.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $331.48 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $322.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $311.30. The company has a market capitalization of $107.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.18, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $201.17 and a one year high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Daiwa America raised shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $325.71.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,367 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $698,000 after buying an additional 191 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 58,453 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $17,237,000 after acquiring an additional 4,581 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 114.3% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 405 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 7,658 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,258,000 after acquiring an additional 1,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PBMares Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $218,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.