State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Grows Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 100.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 238,564 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 119,282 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $43,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 834 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $285,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 786,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $268,851,000 after buying an additional 129,371 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $253,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 6,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,187,000 after buying an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during 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 buying an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. This represents a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. This represents a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. OTR Global restated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 7th. HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $185.00 price target (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 4.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $208.28 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $186.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $182.29. The firm has a market cap of $136.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.04 and a 52 week high of $208.35.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current 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.