China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. Decreases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lessened its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 31.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,939 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 15,714 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,945,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $633,068,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $662,000,000 after buying an additional 1,688,432 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $340,883,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $13,100,311,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,830 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on PANW shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, JMP Securities raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $191.69 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $204.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $197.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total transaction of $23,177,738.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 327,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,878,351.95. This represents a 26.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.39, for a total transaction of $132,573.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,864,398.95. This trade represents a 1.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,228,330 shares of company stock valued at $251,702,305. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.