Cetera Investment Advisers Acquires 46,301 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 391,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 46,301 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $80,118,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. St. Clair Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,233,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the second quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSG Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, September 15th. BTIG Research raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Twenty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.52.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $205.25 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $209.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $197.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 127.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 0.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’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 in the company, valued at $19,629,805.65. This trade represents a 4.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total transaction of $153,979.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,505 shares in the company, valued at $10,449,674.85. This represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,215,830 shares of company stock worth $249,160,428. 2.50% of the stock is owned by 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.