First Financial Bankshares Inc Cuts Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

First Financial Bankshares Inc cut its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 20.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 36,437 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 9,509 shares during the period. First Financial Bankshares Inc’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,712,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after buying an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,736,916 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,055,031,000 after buying an additional 505,924 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after buying an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,528,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,532,902,000 after buying an additional 36,511 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $279.53 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 229.12, a P/E/G ratio of 9.77 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $302.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $214.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $188.58.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.770-3.790 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PANW. Robert W. Baird set a $320.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Berenberg Bank upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Argus upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $222.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $253.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, FBN Securities restated an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Scotiabank nudged its FY2027 EPS estimate higher for PANW, signaling modest confidence in longer-term earnings growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary on Prisma AIRS suggests AI security is gaining traction and could boost revenue growth and deal size.
• Positive Sentiment: Broader cybersecurity-sector coverage remains constructive, with analysts and institutions still favoring the group amid rising AI-related security demand.
• Neutral Sentiment: Northland Securities kept a $302 price target and Market Perform rating while issuing a range of earnings estimates, indicating a cautious but not bearish stance.
• Negative Sentiment: Northland also trimmed some near- and mid-term EPS forecasts for PANW, reflecting lingering concern about profitability assumptions and valuation.
• Negative Sentiment: PANW still trades at a demanding valuation, so any slowdown in AI-security momentum could increase volatility.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director John P. Key sold 1,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.32, for a total value of $272,459.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,466,400. This represents a 7.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora bought 68,085 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $146.87 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,643.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 343,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,434,276.78. The trade was a 24.73% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 72,076 shares of company stock valued at $17,930,587 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.