NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC Increases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 92.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 93,630 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 44,984 shares during the quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $17,052,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 11,822 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,178,000 after acquiring an additional 1,351 shares during the last quarter. Maridea Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. Maridea Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,748 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $875,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,505,894 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $464,342,000 after acquiring an additional 75,779 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 4,227 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $779,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Procyon Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 35.8% during the fourth quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 38,684 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,126,000 after purchasing an additional 10,190 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 4.0%

Shares of PANW opened at $162.95 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $167.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $188.72. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The stock has a market cap of $132.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.03, a P/E/G ratio of 5.88 and a beta of 0.78.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.81 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Barclays set a $200.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares in the company, valued at $29,190,293.42. This trade represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 22,684 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.41, for a total value of $3,729,476.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,631,525. This represents a 30.17% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 149,252 shares of company stock valued at $27,888,535. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.