Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Raises Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 69.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,454 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,417 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $628,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2,933.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 91 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. The trade was a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 in the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on PANW. HSBC downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $455.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $185.00 price target (up from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $190.43 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $132.50 and a one year high of $208.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 107.29, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $186.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.32.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. On average, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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.