Stephens Inc. AR Increases Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Stephens Inc. AR increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 40.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,967 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,171 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $17,138,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $190.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $133.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.79, a PEG ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $192.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $195.89.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. This trade represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 382,016 shares of company stock valued at $76,386,460 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on PANW. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. JMP Securities raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. UBS Group set a $215.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.09.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.