Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Trims Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA reduced its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 97,366 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 766 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks comprises about 2.2% of Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $19,925,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,275 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 2,223 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $212,000. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 1,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $232,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.6%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $213.18 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $206.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.29. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.60 billion, a PE ratio of 132.82, a P/E/G ratio of 5.10 and a beta of 0.95.

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. 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $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. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. BTIG Research upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. KeyCorp cut Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.94, for a total transaction of $26,321,485.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 356,409 shares in the company, valued at $77,675,777.46. The trade was a 25.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,629,805.65. The trade was a 4.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 1,215,830 shares of company stock valued at $249,160,428 over the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks 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.