Semus Wealth Partners LLC Has $684,000 Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Semus Wealth Partners LLC lowered its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 140 shares during the quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after acquiring an additional 32,626 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,232,000 after acquiring an additional 7,291 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $24,414,000. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 2,695 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $914,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total value of $3,484,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 31,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. This trade represents a 24.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PANW. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $384.76.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $389.75 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $359.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $249.56 and a 1 year high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.