Archer Investment Corp Acquires 71 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Archer Investment Corp boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 24.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 357 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the quarter. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $122,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Nwam LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.8% during the first quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $390,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $1,965,000. First Foundation Advisors grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.8% in the 1st quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 259 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 4,957 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after purchasing an additional 3,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cercano Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at about $15,498,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.44, for a total value of $341,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 41,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,175,564.48. The trade was a 2.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 255,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,383,077. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $381.56.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $387.00 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $359.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $336.07. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $234.15 and a 12-month high of $408.53. The firm has a market cap of $126.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.