Raymond James Trust N.A. Increases Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,325 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 259 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,517,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 26,958 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,949,000 after acquiring an additional 427 shares during the period. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 9,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,741,000 after acquiring an additional 716 shares during the last quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $892,000. Finally, Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 29,830 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,796,000 after purchasing an additional 2,342 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $363.49.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total value of $42,165,110.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at $55,791,570. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total value of $42,165,110.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,791,570. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.54, for a total transaction of $22,436,448.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 694,228 shares in the company, valued at $233,635,491.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 366,372 shares of company stock valued at $118,440,693 in the last quarter. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock traded down $0.67 during trading on Monday, reaching $350.08. 409,401 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,405,884. The company has a market capitalization of $113.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 1.14. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $330.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $310.91. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $224.64 and a 12 month high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 EPS 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.