Primecap Management Co. CA Buys 488,250 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 95.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,000,640 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 488,250 shares during the quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $182,076,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Tradewinds LLC. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $791,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. First Dallas Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 2,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $728,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 1,220 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $417,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. RB Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,492 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $852,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Drive Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 928 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 38 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, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total value of $31,730,609.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $195,596,176.16. The trade was a 13.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811 over the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PANW. Guggenheim cut Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 6th. BTIG Research cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $212.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, HSBC cut 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 research report on Friday, November 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $185.00 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $132.50 and a 1 year high of $208.39. The firm has a market cap of $122.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 104.23, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $185.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.97.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS 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.