Versor Investments LP Purchases Shares of 6,392 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 6,392 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,091,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PANW. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 4,031 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 115.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 43,985 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,004,000 after purchasing an additional 23,586 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $567,000. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 93.2% during the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 1,590 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 46,759 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,508,000 after purchasing an additional 20,980 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.00, for a total value of $122,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 41,433 shares in the company, valued at $8,452,332. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.85, for a total transaction of $1,009,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 101,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,414,099.75. This trade represents a 4.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $126,423,337. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of several recent research reports. 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. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.79.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $177.09 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $186.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $210.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.