Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Raises Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 25.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,279 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 2,497 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,489,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3,200.0% in the 1st quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% in the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% in the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Bank & Trust Co. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 89.3% during the 1st quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. now owns 106 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on PANW shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, June 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $380.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $327.00 to $334.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.29.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $339.01 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $109.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $307.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $307.16. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $201.17 and a 1-year high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $99,820.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,767 shares in the company, 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. In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 322 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 3,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,167,770. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,621 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.92, for a total transaction of $497,517.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 20,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,292,166.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 258,182 shares of company stock valued at $74,850,597. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.