State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Increases Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 100.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 238,564 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 119,282 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $43,409,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $333,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,073 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $297,450,000 after purchasing an additional 848,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.1% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,562,722 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $284,353,000 after purchasing an additional 796,964 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on PANW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 target price (down from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,744,323.20. The trade was a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total value of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $208.28 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $186.84 and a 200 day moving average of $182.29. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.04 and a 12 month high of $208.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $136.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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.