670 Shares in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Acquired by Sargent Investment Group LLC

Sargent Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 670 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,129,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,127 shares during the last quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 359.3% in the 4th quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 957,699 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $282,406,000 after purchasing an additional 749,199 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at approximately $177,933,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 640,755 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $188,946,000 after buying an additional 249,455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $799,792,000 after buying an additional 198,078 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of several analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic cut Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $350.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Argus increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $336.00 to $348.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Thirteen 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $366.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total transaction of $67,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,443,916. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total transaction of $67,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,443,916. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 125,866 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.00, for a total value of $42,165,110.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,791,570. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 464,075 shares of company stock worth $154,029,567 over the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $337.93 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $336.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $312.63. The company has a market cap of $110.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.12, a PEG ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $224.64 and a 52-week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.55 EPS for the current fiscal 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.