Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Purchased by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 5.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,885 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,095 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $17,039,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,979,497 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,610,748,000 after buying an additional 1,493,179 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,734,973,000 after acquiring an additional 205,123 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,778,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,993,802,000 after acquiring an additional 706,003 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.4% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,466,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,036,648,000 after purchasing an additional 273,103 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird set a $420.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. FBN Securities reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $525.00 price objective (up from $475.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of PANW opened at $347.25 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $284.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 680.90, a PEG ratio of 9.79 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $370.23 and a 200-day moving average of $305.93. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $432.33.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total value of $10,769,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,110,900. This trade represents a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) is a global cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and digital infrastructure. Its offerings are designed to prevent cyberattacks, identify security risks, monitor activity, and support incident response across enterprise, government, and service-provider environments.

The company’s portfolio includes network security products such as next-generation firewalls and security operations tools; Prisma, its cloud security platform; and Cortex, a suite focused on endpoint protection, threat detection, security analytics, and automated response.