Nir Zuk Sells 168,000 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) EVP Nir Zuk sold 168,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $387.39, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,821,758 shares in the company, valued at $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Nir Zuk also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, October 1st, Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $384.37 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $368.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.82. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $260.09 and a 52-week high of $408.53. The company has a market cap of $126.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.05, a PEG ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 1.12.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks are set to split before the market opens on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on PANW. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. BTIG Research raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $414.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $402.03.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tradewinds LLC. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $791,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,379,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $357,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $119,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.