Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Has $321,000 Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 141.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,766 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $321,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,048,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,474 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $333,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,073 shares during the period. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $297,450,000 after buying an additional 848,127 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.1% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,562,722 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $284,353,000 after buying an additional 796,964 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 100.6% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,374,653 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $250,132,000 after buying an additional 689,458 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.1 %

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $184.28 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $122.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.82, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $186.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $184.74. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $132.50 and a 1-year high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’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 transaction of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 358,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,353,042.65. The trade was a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.