MetLife Investment Management LLC Purchases 103,685 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 105.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 201,629 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 103,685 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $36,688,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,248 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $36,316,000 after buying an additional 1,619 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 64,737 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $22,127,000 after purchasing an additional 5,133 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 2,606 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $891,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 15.1% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,528 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,915,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sfmg LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the third quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 16,836 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $5,754,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $167.69 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.86. The firm has a market cap of $111.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.07. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.60 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $213.00 to $205.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a "moderate sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, HSBC upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a "reduce" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $156.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares of the company's stock, valued at $48,629,704.62. The trade was a 27.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,543,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. This represents a 2.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,039,318 shares of company stock valued at $181,925,602. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.