Ameriflex Group Inc. Acquires 164 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Ameriflex Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 12.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,472 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Ameriflex Group Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PANW. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth approximately $810,047,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $633,068,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,735 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $662,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,688,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,712,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541,637 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on PANW shares. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 15th. UBS Group set a $245.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, September 26th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.64.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.0%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $207.19 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $212.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $190.20 and a 200-day moving average of $188.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $138.59 billion, a PE ratio of 129.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.98 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,629,805.65. The trade was a 4.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $259,351,606 in the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by 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.