Freestone Capital Holdings LLC Has $6.34 Million Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Key Points

• Freestone Capital Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 169.9%, acquiring an additional 23,394 shares, bringing their total to 37,161 shares valued at approximately $6.34 million.
• Palo Alto Networks reported earnings of $0.80 per share for the most recent quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.77, with revenues of $2.29 billion, up 15.3% year-over-year.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds currently own 79.82% of Palo Alto Networks’ stock, reflecting strong investor confidence in the network technology company.

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 169.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,161 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 23,394 shares during the quarter. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,541,637 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,088,631 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,134,735 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.0%

PANW opened at $177.09 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $118.08 billion, a PE ratio of 101.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $210.39. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $192.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $186.42.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.95%. Palo Alto Networks's quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on PANW shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group set a $185.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $217.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $99,940.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,632 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,640,080. The trade was a 5.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $126,423,337 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.

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