Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Buys 16,538 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 90.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,732 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 16,538 shares during the period. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.'s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,611,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $970,736,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,533,419,000 after purchasing an additional 3,841,359 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on PANW shares. Westpark Capital reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $196.40 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. 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. TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "sell" rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW traded up $4.96 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $190.78. 11,416,203 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,559,007. The company has a market cap of $127.21 billion, a PE ratio of 107.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $142.01 and a one year high of $208.39. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $178.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.96.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. Palo Alto Networks's quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total value of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.27, for a total transaction of $22,858,894.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 293,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at $55,458,002.70. The trade was a 29.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

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.