Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. Purchases 14,535 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 100.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,070 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 14,535 shares during the quarter. Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.'s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,290,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at $1,156,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at $24,414,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 961,000 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $328,470,000 after buying an additional 4,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the third quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 40,173 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $13,731,000 after buying an additional 5,250 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on PANW. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $202.70.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 4.0 %

NASDAQ PANW traded down $7.94 during trading on Friday, hitting $190.87. 3,317,805 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,309,446. The company has a market cap of $126.37 billion, a PE ratio of 107.54, a P/E/G ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $132.50 and a fifty-two week high of $208.39. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $187.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $182.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) 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 firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. Analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,458,864 shares of company stock valued at $269,397,331. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.