Rhumbline Advisers Decreases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Rhumbline Advisers cut its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,195,779 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 8,495 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $243,484,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PANW. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 4,031 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after buying an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 24.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 74,571 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,260,000 after buying an additional 14,661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Almanack Investment Partners LLC. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $223,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Northland Securities boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. HSBC lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $157.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $240.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.36.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $165.51 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $184.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $192.93. The stock has a market cap of $115.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.75. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.