Martingale Asset Management L P Makes New Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Martingale Asset Management L P bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,142,122,000 after acquiring an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,611,013,000 after purchasing an additional 6,725,148 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 59.3% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,552,888 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,010,403,000 after purchasing an additional 2,067,838 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $970,736,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $455.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating and set a $196.40 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. BTIG Research downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $230.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. The trade was a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 939,318 shares of company stock worth $165,384,602. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.0 %

PANW opened at $168.34 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $182.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.90. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.18 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The company has a market cap of $111.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.07.

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

About Palo Alto Networks

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.