Valley Wealth Managers Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,934 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,934 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $661,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its stake in 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 grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1,111.1% in the 1st quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 109 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $381.56.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $387.00 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $359.86 and its 200 day moving average is $336.07. The firm has a market cap of $126.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.38, a PEG ratio of 5.84 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.80 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 255,252 shares of company stock worth $89,383,077. 2.50% 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.