Balboa Wealth Partners Lowers Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Balboa Wealth Partners lowered its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 47.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,835 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,516 shares during the quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $969,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 17.9% during the first quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,143 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $609,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Nwam LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.8% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $390,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,635,000. Forge First Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $540,000. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $1,965,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. OTR Global reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $334.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total transaction of $20,698,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,924.82. This represents a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 255,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,383,077. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $394.39 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $335.01. The company has a market capitalization of $128.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $234.15 and a 12 month high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 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.