Braun Stacey Associates Inc. Has $27.30 Million Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Braun Stacey Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 96.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 150,017 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 73,490 shares during the period. Braun Stacey Associates Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $27,297,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $268,851,000 after buying an additional 129,371 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at about $253,000. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 222.6% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,949 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.5% during the third quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,200 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $89,532,411.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. The trade was a 31.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $205.19 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $130.04 and a one year high of $208.39. The stock has a market cap of $134.65 billion, a PE ratio of 115.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $187.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.68.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. OTR Global reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. BTIG Research lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

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.