Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Acquires Shares of 2,926 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,926 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 66.4% in the 4th quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 79,609 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $14,486,000 after buying an additional 31,761 shares in the last quarter. Brick & Kyle Associates lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 100.1% during the 4th quarter. Brick & Kyle Associates now owns 18,571 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,379,000 after acquiring an additional 9,288 shares during the period. Shufro Rose & Co. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 79.6% during the 4th quarter. Shufro Rose & Co. LLC now owns 1,320 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $240,000 after acquiring an additional 585 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 76.8% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 80,508 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $14,649,000 after acquiring an additional 34,967 shares during the period. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 120.5% in the fourth quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 1,614 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $294,000 after acquiring an additional 882 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,543,516 shares in the company, valued at $586,132,981.56. The trade was a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690 over the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on PANW shares. Roth Capital assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. Westpark Capital reissued a "hold" rating and set a $196.40 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $206.40.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.2%

PANW traded up $0.34 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $187.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,853,274 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,590,369. The stock has a market cap of $125.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.80, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The business's 50-day moving average price is $178.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $185.20. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.01 and a 12 month high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The business's revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.66 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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.