NEOS Investment Management LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 63.0% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 277,601 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 107,340 shares during the quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $56,525,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $675,865,000. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $340,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,269,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,290,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,589 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 97.9% in the second quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,104,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $430,755,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,145 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3,881.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 721,157 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,842,000 after acquiring an additional 703,044 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Barclays set a $200.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Mizuho set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $223.97.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $166.95 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $223.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $192.28. The stock has a market cap of $116.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.75.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total value of $23,070,311.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 298,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This trade represents a 28.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.