Swiss National Bank Has $328.47 Million Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Swiss National Bank grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 961,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 4,400 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $328,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth approximately $1,965,000. First Foundation Advisors grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 37.8% during the first quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 259 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 4,957 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,408,000 after purchasing an additional 3,599 shares during the period. Cynosure Group LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth approximately $319,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 23.2% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 881 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.9 %

PANW stock opened at $387.00 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $359.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $336.39. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $234.15 and a 1-year high of $408.53. The stock has a market cap of $126.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.38, a P/E/G ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.44, for a total transaction of $341,440.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 41,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,175,564.48. This represents a 2.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 255,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,383,077 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on PANW. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. OTR Global reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $384.76.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.