ASB Consultores LLC Invests $369,000 in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

ASB Consultores LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,129,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,127 shares in the last quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $282,406,000 after acquiring an additional 749,199 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $177,933,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 640,755 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $188,946,000 after acquiring an additional 249,455 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $799,792,000 after acquiring an additional 198,078 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $333.60 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $336.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $312.89. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $224.64 and a 52-week high of $380.84. The company has a market cap of $108.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.49, a PEG ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.13.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total value of $67,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,443,916. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total transaction of $3,484,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total transaction of $67,600.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,443,916. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 464,075 shares of company stock worth $154,029,567 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.08.

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.