Brio Consultants LLC Acquires Shares of 1,900 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Key Points

• Brio Consultants LLC has made a $324,000 investment in Palo Alto Networks, acquiring 1,900 shares during the 1st quarter.
• Research analysts have a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" for Palo Alto Networks, with a price target averaging $209.42.
• In the last 90 days, corporate insiders sold a total of 569,248 shares, valued at approximately $111.3 million.

Brio Consultants LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,900 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $324,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.3% during the first quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 3,203 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the first quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC now owns 3,536 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $603,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% during the first quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC now owns 10,295 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,757,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $800,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 480,035 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $81,913,000 after purchasing an additional 16,343 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.00, for a total transaction of $122,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 41,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,452,332. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 569,248 shares of company stock valued at $111,279,829 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of several analyst reports. HSBC upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a "reduce" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $156.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Barclays cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $210.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Northland Securities cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Stephens lowered Palo Alto Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $209.42.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded up $1.23 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $204.50. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,132,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,193,833. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39. The company has a market capitalization of $136.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.86, a P/E/G ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.97. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $196.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $187.13.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 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 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share 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.