Venture Visionary Partners LLC Acquires 8,527 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Venture Visionary Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 24.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 43,643 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,527 shares during the period. Venture Visionary Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,447,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,712,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541,637 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,324,387,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,631 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,234,650,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,735 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 98.0% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,158,580 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,120,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,047,625 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PANW. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday. Northland Securities dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.79.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock opened at $176.17 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $210.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $191.59 and its 200 day moving average is $186.35. The firm has a market cap of $117.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 100.67, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.94.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 101,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,414,099.75. The trade was a 4.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 669,248 shares of company stock worth $126,423,337 over the last ninety days. 2.50% 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.