Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Acquires 33,280 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 170.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 52,760 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,280 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $9,531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $268,851,000 after purchasing an additional 129,371 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares during the last quarter. United Bank boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 6,835 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,336,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $231,000. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 1,220 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at $65,744,323.20. This trade represents a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total transaction of $31,730,609.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $195,596,176.16. This represents a 13.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 over the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on PANW. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $185.00 target price (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three research 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $183.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $121.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.16, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $185.89 and a 200 day moving average of $184.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $132.50 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.