Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Purchased by Banco Santander S.A.

Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 146.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,407 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,096 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,623,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $268,851,000 after acquiring an additional 129,371 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 9,497 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,248,000 after purchasing an additional 2,577 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 25.8% in the third quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 857 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $99,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. HSBC lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 over the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $180.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.93, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $132.50 and a one year high of $208.39. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $186.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $184.78.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results 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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 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.