Marietta Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Marietta Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,424 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 769 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks makes up 1.3% of Marietta Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Marietta Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $9,705,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. St. Clair Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the second quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $955,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. GSG Advisors LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the first quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,154,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% during the first quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 4,047 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on PANW. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.64.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $207.19 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $190.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.21. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $212.10. The company has a market cap of $138.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total transaction of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,008,788.94. This trade represents a 40.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $259,351,606 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.