Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Purchases 5,661 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 192.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,599 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,661 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,915,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,129,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,127 shares during the period. Axiom Investors LLC DE raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 359.3% in the fourth quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 957,699 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $282,406,000 after purchasing an additional 749,199 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $177,933,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 640,755 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $188,946,000 after acquiring an additional 249,455 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $799,792,000 after acquiring an additional 198,078 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Macquarie boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets assumed coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $350.00 price target on the stock. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total value of $500,202.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 19,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,452,097.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.54, for a total transaction of $22,436,448.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 694,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $233,635,491.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total value of $500,202.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 19,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,452,097.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 464,075 shares of company stock worth $154,029,567 in the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $346.11 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $112.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $224.64 and a 52 week high of $380.84. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $336.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $312.38.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.55 EPS for the current 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.