Hills Bank & Trust Co Trims Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Hills Bank & Trust Co reduced its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,502 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 575 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,249,594 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,118,190,000 after buying an additional 1,002,239 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $177,933,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 444,100.0% during the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 444,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $150,520,000 after purchasing an additional 444,100 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at about $94,875,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total value of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,055,533.37. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.93, for a total value of $17,755,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,055,533.37. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 315,252 shares of company stock worth $107,138,877. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $360.79 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.38. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $233.81 and a 1-year high of $384.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $117.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.13.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.80 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on PANW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. BTIG Research increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $366.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.49.

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.