LRI Investments LLC Purchases 701 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

LRI Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 42.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,350 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 701 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after acquiring an additional 31,281,359 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,725,148 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $970,736,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. HSBC raised Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $196.40 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.8%

PANW opened at $186.93 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.01 and a 12 month high of $208.39. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $176.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $184.78. The stock has a market cap of $123.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 105.31, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 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, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,543,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.27, for a total value of $22,858,894.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 293,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,458,002.70. This trade represents a 29.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 568,962 shares of company stock worth $96,933,690. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.