Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Sells 217,837 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 25.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 637,472 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 217,837 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks accounts for 0.7% of Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned 0.20% of Palo Alto Networks worth $187,978,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Webster Bank N. A. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% in the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% during the 4th quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% during the third quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at $7,629,160. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at $7,629,160. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 122,917 shares of company stock worth $33,959,203 over the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of PANW stock traded up $6.96 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $294.30. 1,591,347 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,294,375. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $285.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $293.00. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $176.35 and a 1-year high of $380.84. The company has a market cap of $95.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $363.00 to $337.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. KeyCorp cut their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $275.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.82.

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.