Highland Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 5,334 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Highland Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 5,334 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,086,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total value of $132,573.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,805 shares in the company, valued at $8,864,398.95. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 376,922 shares of company stock worth $77,963,339 in the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on PANW. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, December 15th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.20.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $188.45 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $199.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $197.01. The stock has a market cap of $131.35 billion, a PE ratio of 119.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal 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.