Gouws Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 2,970 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Gouws Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,970 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,015,000. Palo Alto Networks comprises approximately 0.7% of Gouws Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. KCM Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 65.3% in the 3rd quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 975 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $333,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 24.8% during the third quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 357 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $122,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $661,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 177.5% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 25,064 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,567,000 after acquiring an additional 16,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,539 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,551,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,994 shares in the company, valued at $219,505,142.12. The trade was a 9.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 255,252 shares of company stock worth $89,383,077 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $416.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $350.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $381.56.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW traded down $7.39 on Friday, hitting $387.00. 513,937 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,841,996. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $234.15 and a 12 month high of $408.53. The company has a market cap of $126.01 billion, a PE ratio of 53.77, a PEG ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $358.84 and its 200-day moving average is $335.42.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal 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.