Klingman & Associates LLC Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Klingman & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 133.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,752 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,002 shares during the period. Klingman & Associates LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $319,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the fourth 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 period. Swedbank AB raised its stake 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. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.1% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,562,722 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $284,353,000 after purchasing an additional 796,964 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on PANW. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 target price (down from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $205.19 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $187.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $182.68. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.04 and a 12 month high of $208.39. The company has a market cap of $134.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.