Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 24.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,249 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 8,959 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks comprises 1.2% of Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,820,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,393 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $750,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,613 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,640,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. First Interstate Bank grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. First Interstate Bank now owns 51,283 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $8,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,538 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 137,663 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $23,491,000 after purchasing an additional 10,180 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Pictet & Cie SA grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 56,111 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $9,575,000 after purchasing an additional 3,681 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.66, for a total transaction of $19,866,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,243,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,356,888.56. This trade represents a 2.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $99,940.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,632 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 569,248 shares of company stock worth $111,279,829 over the last quarter. Insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PANW. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 2.4%

PANW stock traded down $4.53 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $187.54. 4,226,952 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,400,854. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.01 and a 12-month high of $208.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $195.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $185.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $125.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 107.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 0.97.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.95%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal 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.