Enterprise Financial Services Corp Purchases 622 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Enterprise Financial Services Corp grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 106.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,208 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 622 shares during the period. Enterprise Financial Services Corp’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $220,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 97.2% during the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 140 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 246.3% during the 4th quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 142 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Abound Wealth Management grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 97.3% during the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 265.0% in the 4th quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 102.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 156 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $180.93 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $186.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.78. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $132.50 and a 52 week 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on PANW. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Hsbc Global Res cut Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. This trade represents a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.