Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Acquires 2,484 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 17.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,844 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,484 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,710,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 72.2% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 30,418 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,312,000 after buying an additional 12,753 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 2,602 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $882,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 5,882 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $706,000. Finally, Somerset Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the second quarter. Somerset Group LLC now owns 9,509 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,224,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $366.08.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $340.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.74 billion, a PE ratio of 49.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $224.64 and a 12-month high of $380.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $336.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $313.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total value of $500,202.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 19,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,452,097.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total value of $67,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total transaction of $500,202.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 19,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,452,097.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 464,075 shares of company stock worth $154,029,567 in the last 90 days. 3.30% of the stock is 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.