Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Purchases 150,452 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 104.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 295,050 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 150,452 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $53,687,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tradewinds LLC. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $791,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% in the third quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 2,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $728,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. RB Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the third quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,492 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $852,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% in the third quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $792,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $676,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.9 %

PANW opened at $184.01 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $186.41 and its 200-day moving average is $185.00. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $132.50 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The company has a market cap of $121.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.67, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were 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 owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total transaction of $18,191,542.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 358,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,353,042.65. This trade represents a 21.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Guggenheim lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

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.