Ashford Capital Management Inc. Purchases New Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Ashford Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 33,471 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,366,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $100,053,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 38.7% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 883,419 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $141,629,000 after purchasing an additional 246,421 shares in the last quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.5% in the first quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 643 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Glen Eagle Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 146.6% during the first quarter. Glen Eagle Advisors LLC now owns 619 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the period. Finally, Clough Capital Partners L P boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.5% during the first quarter. Clough Capital Partners L P now owns 55,569 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,909,000 after purchasing an additional 16,290 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $317.32 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $258.62 billion, a PE ratio of 260.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 0.91. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $368.80. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $302.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $218.75.

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, topping 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%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.37 EPS. 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. As a group, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 81,636 shares in the company, valued at $23,272,790.88. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.