Invesco LLC Buys New Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Invesco LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,744 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $810,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 64.0% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 141 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. JDM Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 322 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Adero Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the first quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 1,556 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Snider Financial Group increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 17,729 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,025,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Grimes & Company Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.3% during the first quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 1,310 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $224,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded down $1.77 during trading on Friday, reaching $200.57. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,339,865 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,407,639. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $190.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $185.42. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.97.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.95%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on PANW. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Roth Capital initiated coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.00.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.05, for a total transaction of $160,840.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 42,033 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,450,734.65. This represents a 1.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total value of $16,541,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This trade represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 795,536 shares of company stock worth $141,007,618 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

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.