Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Has $651,000 Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 26.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,920 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $651,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cascade Investment Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,110 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $376,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Sepio Capital LP increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Sepio Capital LP now owns 944 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the first quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 1,479 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $420,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.2% in the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 120 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First County Bank CT increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. First County Bank CT now owns 3,537 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $333.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $108.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $336.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $312.89. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $224.64 and a 12-month high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $350.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks 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 MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $366.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total transaction of $67,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,443,916. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total value of $3,484,900.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now 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 have sold 464,075 shares of company stock valued at $154,029,567 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.