Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Stock Holdings Lifted by Bleakley Financial Group LLC

Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,929 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,452 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,464,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dagco Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carderock Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total value of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,629,805.65. This represents a 4.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at $6,564,943.84. This represents a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on PANW shares. UBS Group set a $245.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Piper Sandler raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $217.22.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $215.02 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $217.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $143.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 133.97, a P/E/G ratio of 5.05 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $199.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $191.74.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. 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, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS 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.