Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 90.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,412 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 5,899 shares during the quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 64.0% in the 4th 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. 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 buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Adero Partners LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $266,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Snider Financial Group increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 17,729 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,025,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Grimes & Company Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.3% in the 1st 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.

Insider Buying and Selling 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, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total value of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This trade represents a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 789,736 shares of company stock worth $139,837,528. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays dropped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $210.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Stephens downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "moderate sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Northland Securities reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $208.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $199.78 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.01 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The company's fifty day moving average is $186.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.97.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released 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. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.95%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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