Barden Capital Management Inc. Buys 93 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Barden Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.3% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,163 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,222,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $548,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 106.4% in the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,378 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $433,000 after buying an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 94.3% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 11,661 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,122,000 after buying an additional 5,658 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 21,354 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,886,000 after buying an additional 11,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 82.1% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,345,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $244,871,000 after buying an additional 606,778 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $199.60 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.01 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.09 billion, a PE ratio of 112.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $180.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $185.02.

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

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total value of $18,252,574.62. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,629,704.62. The trade was a 27.29% 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 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $586,132,981.56. The trade was a 2.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 789,736 shares of company stock worth $139,837,528 in the last 90 days. 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.