Meeder Asset Management Inc. Has $48,000 Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 42.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 266 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $48,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares during the last quarter. United Bank lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 6,835 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,336,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 406.6% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 29,744 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,166,000 after acquiring an additional 23,873 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 2,573 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $879,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 149.1% in the 3rd quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 6,001 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,051,000 after acquiring an additional 3,592 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $171.31 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $132.50 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $187.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $185.46. The company has a market cap of $113.42 billion, a PE ratio of 96.51, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. 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 that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 over the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PANW. Scotiabank upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. BTIG Research cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.27.

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.