Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Stock Position Boosted by CFM Wealth Partners LLC

CFM Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 69,414 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks makes up about 2.3% of CFM Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. CFM Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $14,205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. St. Clair Advisors LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $381,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $955,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. GSG Advisors LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,154,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 4,047 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $691,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $215.00 price target (up previously from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $214.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,194,356 shares of company stock worth $235,092,941. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $212.58 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $213.85. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $190.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $188.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.19 billion, a PE ratio of 132.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted 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 business had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly 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 forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share 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.