Essex Financial Services Inc. Sells 58 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Essex Financial Services Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,291 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 58 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $381,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Webster Bank N. A. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 607.1% in the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 99 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.0% in the fourth quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 101 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 277.8% during the 3rd quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 136 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $315.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $296.21 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $177.09 and a 52 week high of $380.84. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $285.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $293.01. The company has a market cap of $95.71 billion, a PE ratio of 46.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 1.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,295,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $373,434,232.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total value of $10,376,640.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,295,567 shares in the company, valued at $373,434,232.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 158,917 shares of company stock valued at $44,335,843 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

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.