Titleist Asset Management LLC Grows Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Titleist Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 150.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,309 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,988 shares during the quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings 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 increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 6,835 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,336,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 128.6% during the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 10,452 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,572,000 after purchasing an additional 5,880 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 966.5% during the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 51,002 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $17,432,000 after purchasing an additional 46,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 174.4% in the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 5,718 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after purchasing an additional 3,634 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PANW. JMP Securities raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. UBS Group increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.27.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $153.57 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $132.83 and a 1 year high of $208.39. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $185.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $185.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.68 billion, a PE ratio of 86.52, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.07.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’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 directly owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 818,544 shares of company stock valued at $147,132,028. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.