Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 136,330 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 197.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 205,358 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 136,330 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $70,191,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 352.6% during the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% in the third quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, First PREMIER Bank increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 48.4% during the third quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 95 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on PANW shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $384.76.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 255,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,383,077 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $387.00 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $359.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $336.39. The company has a market capitalization of $126.01 billion, a PE ratio of 53.38, a PEG ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $234.15 and a 52 week 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. The business 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.80 EPS. On average, 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.