S.A. Mason LLC Invests $102,000 in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

S.A. Mason LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 298 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $1,113,948,000 after buying an additional 3,249,594 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,118,190,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,239 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $177,933,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 444,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 444,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $150,520,000 after purchasing an additional 444,100 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,099,564,000 after purchasing an additional 255,060 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. TD Cowen upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $376.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,994 shares in the company, valued at $219,505,142.12. This trade represents 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 other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 639,994 shares in the company, valued at $219,505,142.12. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total value of $3,484,900.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 31,517 shares in the company, valued at $10,983,359.33. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 315,252 shares of company stock worth $107,138,877 in the last quarter. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock opened at $359.51 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $117.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $233.81 and a 1 year high of $384.00. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $352.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $328.16.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.80 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.57 EPS 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.