Patten Group Inc. Grows Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Patten Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 136.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,262 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,192 shares during the quarter. Patten Group Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,321,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $348,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 109.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,202,926 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $764,764,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197,765 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 101.4% during the fourth quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 177,600 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,316,000 after buying an additional 89,400 shares in the last quarter. NBW Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 93.5% in the fourth quarter. NBW Capital LLC now owns 54,898 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $9,989,000 after buying an additional 26,532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unified Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,177,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $455.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $183.68 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $132.50 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $186.55 and a 200-day moving average of $184.63. The company has a market capitalization of $121.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.48, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 490,723 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.45, for a total value of $89,532,411.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $198,214,409.80. The trade was a 31.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock worth $204,315,811 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.