GWN Securities Inc. Invests $411,000 in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

GWN Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 2,190 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $411,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Altus Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $214,000. Glenview Trust co boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 105.2% in the fourth quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 9,192 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,673,000 after buying an additional 4,712 shares in the last quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 143.3% in the fourth quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 1,426 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $259,000 after buying an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 132.1% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 4,616 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $840,000 after buying an additional 2,627 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CV Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $648,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $193.50 to $224.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Guggenheim downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 6th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.06.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $182.34 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $132.50 and a 52 week high of $208.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $185.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.73 billion, a PE ratio of 102.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,694,210.72. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. The trade was a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,122,864 shares of company stock valued at $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.