1,554 Shares in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Acquired by Opinicus Capital Inc.

Opinicus Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,554 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $458,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GSG Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 5,160 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,478,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 4,178 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,232,000 after buying an additional 1,325 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 148.9% in the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 189,801 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $44,497,000 after buying an additional 113,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 137,104 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,143,000 after buying an additional 735 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on PANW. Barclays dropped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $345.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW traded up $2.63 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $291.42. The stock had a trading volume of 2,246,512 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,487,617. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.30 and a 12 month high of $380.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.16 billion, a PE ratio of 45.53, a PEG ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $287.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $292.10.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks 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.