Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC Sells 30,262 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Key Points

• Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC sold 30,262 shares of Palo Alto Networks, reducing its stake by 13.8%, with remaining holdings valued at approximately $32.3 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Rehmann Capital Advisory Group and Nisa Investment Advisors LLC, increased their positions in Palo Alto Networks, indicating strong interest in the company among major investors.
• Palo Alto Networks reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.80, surpassing analysts' expectations, with revenue growth of 15.3% year-over-year.

Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 13.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 189,197 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 30,262 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks comprises 1.9% of Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $32,285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 106.4% during the 4th quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,378 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,410,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares in the last quarter. Diligent Investors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. Diligent Investors LLC now owns 3,430 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $624,000 after buying an additional 1,715 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 137,663 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $23,491,000 after acquiring an additional 10,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 108.4% in the fourth quarter. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC now owns 20,898 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $3,803,000 after acquiring an additional 10,868 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $167.06 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $194.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $186.91. The company has a market cap of $111.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $210.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 13.95% and a return on equity of 19.48%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Stephens downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Palo Alto Networks from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $209.61.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.58, for a total value of $20,722,402.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 206,718 shares in the company, valued at $35,468,674.44. This represents a 36.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $99,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 8,632 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 669,248 shares of company stock worth $126,423,337 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

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