Washington Trust Bank lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,913 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 2,499 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks comprises approximately 2.3% of Washington Trust Bank's holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Washington Trust Bank's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $23,363,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 64.0% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 141 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the first quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd. now owns 2,310 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 322 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the first quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC now owns 3,067 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $523,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the first quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 18,983 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $3,239,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
PANW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Guggenheim reiterated a "sell" rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "moderate sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $210.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $208.00.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 6.8%
NASDAQ:PANW traded down $13.99 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $192.07. 9,210,894 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,399,736. 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 cap of $128.07 billion, a PE ratio of 109.75, a PEG ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 0.97. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $194.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $185.76.
Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced 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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.95%. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.
Insider Activity
In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.85, for a total transaction of $1,009,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 101,135 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,414,099.75. The trade was a 4.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the company'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 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $127,820,829. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
About Palo Alto Networks
(
Free Report)
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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