CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp Has $5.40 Million Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp lowered its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 38.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,012 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 11,861 shares during the quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,402,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Horizon Family Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Family Wealth Inc. now owns 2,463 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $726,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 204 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 233 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parisi Gray Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management now owns 1,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $448,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $385.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.17.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total value of $99,820.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,167,770. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $99,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,770. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.21, for a total transaction of $240,168.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,997,573.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 258,182 shares of company stock valued at $74,850,597. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 3.0 %

PANW opened at $320.33 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $201.17 and a twelve month high of $380.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $301.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $306.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.10.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 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.