CRA Financial Services LLC Buys 88 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

CRA Financial Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. CRA Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $864,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. GSG Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 5,160 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,478,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 31.4% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 112,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,038,000 after buying an additional 26,767 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 24,726 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,291,000 after buying an additional 2,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% during the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $478,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,621 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.92, for a total transaction of $497,517.32. Following the sale, the president now owns 20,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,292,166.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director John P. Key sold 2,163 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.41, for a total transaction of $660,601.83. Following the transaction, the director now owns 12,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,860,076.99. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,621 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.92, for a total value of $497,517.32. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 20,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,292,166.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 258,182 shares of company stock worth $74,850,597. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on PANW. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Macquarie increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Argus boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $336.00 to $348.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $327.00 to $334.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.29.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW traded down $1.81 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $339.01. 4,172,306 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,168,419. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $307.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $307.16. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $201.17 and a 52-week high of $380.84. The company has a market cap of $109.77 billion, a PE ratio of 49.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 1.10.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

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.