HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Has $5.60 Million Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 12.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 27,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,144 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,601,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Klingman & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $434,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the third quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $496,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PTM Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $276,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,190,293.42. This 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 at this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the director owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. The trade was a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. HSBC lowered shares of 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. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. 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 report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of PANW stock opened at $166.72 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $186.28 and a 200-day moving average of $194.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 0.75.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.56 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share 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.