Nikesh Arora Sells 81,586 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Nikesh Arora also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, September 4th, Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

PANW opened at $373.23 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.85 billion, a PE ratio of 54.25, a PEG ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $233.81 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $346.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $321.63.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,118,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,239 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,099,564,000 after acquiring an additional 255,060 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $799,792,000 after acquiring an additional 198,078 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $757,321,000 after acquiring an additional 114,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,000,511 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $339,183,000 after purchasing an additional 73,922 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on PANW. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.28.

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.