Gouws Capital LLC Acquires 6,020 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Gouws Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 202.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,990 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,020 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks accounts for about 1.1% of Gouws Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Gouws Capital LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,636,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,609,486,000 after buying an additional 220,900 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 2,612,474 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 2,197,765 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $333,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $297,450,000 after purchasing an additional 848,127 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Truist Financial raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $212.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $165.00 to $192.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.06.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $184.38 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $122.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.88, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $132.50 and a 12-month high of $208.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $186.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.75.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results 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 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current 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.