Fidelis Capital Partners LLC Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,253 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 869 shares during the quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,154,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,118,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,239 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $757,321,000 after buying an additional 114,742 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,000,511 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $339,183,000 after acquiring an additional 73,922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 749,199 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction 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 owns 24,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,443,916. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $8,443,916. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,668 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.54, for a total value of $22,436,448.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 694,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $233,635,491.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 464,075 shares of company stock worth $154,029,567 over the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Argus lifted their price objective on 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 issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, August 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $366.08.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $340.12 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $224.64 and a 1 year high of $380.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $336.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $313.33. The firm has a market cap of $110.13 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 (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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $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 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.