Argentarii LLC Purchases Shares of 7,615 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Argentarii LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,615 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,386,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,609,486,000 after purchasing an additional 220,900 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 109.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,202,926 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $764,764,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197,765 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $388,155,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in 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 worth $333,925,000 after acquiring an additional 1,213,073 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 99,707 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $18,191,542.15. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 358,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,353,042.65. The trade was a 21.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $204,315,811. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $455.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.9 %

PANW opened at $180.93 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $186.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.78. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $132.50 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The company has a market capitalization of $119.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.93, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.