Nikesh Arora Sells 81,586 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Nikesh Arora also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, September 4th, Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total value of $22,865,104.68.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW traded up $0.53 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $374.44. The stock had a trading volume of 2,727,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,061,437. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $320.63. The firm has a market cap of $121.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.06, a P/E/G ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $233.81 and a one year high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $478,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after buying an additional 32,626 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $799,792,000 after purchasing an additional 198,078 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 48.4% during the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 26,404 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,502,000 after purchasing an additional 8,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the first quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,377 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,244,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Susquehanna upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.28.

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.