Grassi Investment Management Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Grassi Investment Management grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,400 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 490 shares during the period. Grassi Investment Management’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Beacon Financial Group grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Beacon Financial Group now owns 1,782 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the first quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,808 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $991,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Clare Market Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.7% in the first quarter. Clare Market Investments LLC now owns 13,444 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,294,000 after buying an additional 2,020 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 98.6% in the first quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,666 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 827 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,373 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,476,000 after acquiring an additional 1,641 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup increased 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, February 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.00.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total value of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,543,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This trade represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 668,962 shares of company stock valued at $116,269,690. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $194.07 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.01 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $179.38 and a 200-day moving average of $185.03. The firm has a market cap of $129.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current 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.