New York State Common Retirement Fund Buys 426,396 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 110.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 813,592 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 426,396 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.12% of Palo Alto Networks worth $148,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.0% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,759,689 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,048,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,474 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $333,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,073 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $297,450,000 after purchasing an additional 848,127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 104.1% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,562,722 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $284,353,000 after buying an additional 796,964 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. 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. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $220.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "hold" rating to a "reduce" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $202.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 365,856 shares of the company's stock, valued at $65,744,323.20. This trade represents a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total value of $31,730,609.68. 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 $195,596,176.16. This trade represents a 13.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331 over the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded down $7.78 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $191.03. The company had a trading volume of 5,451,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,377,549. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $187.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.95. The stock has a market cap of $126.48 billion, a PE ratio of 107.62, a P/E/G ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $132.50 and a 1-year high of $208.39.

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

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.