Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Bought by Meeder Advisory Services Inc.

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 4.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,278 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,216,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GSG Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 5,160 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,478,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 31.4% in the 4th quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 112,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,038,000 after purchasing an additional 26,767 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 24,726 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,291,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $478,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Daiwa America raised Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Argus increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $336.00 to $348.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.29.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $373,434,232.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total value of $67,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,443,916. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 428,391 shares of company stock valued at $136,147,317 over the last 90 days. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW traded down $2.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $338.83. 333,817 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,611,816. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.55, a P/E/G ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $317.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $310.00. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $201.17 and a twelve month high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.