Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA Acquires New Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 64,860 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,119,000. Palo Alto Networks makes up about 4.7% of Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,833,462,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after buying an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the subject of several recent research reports. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. FBN Securities restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 17th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $390.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $475.00 target price (up from $420.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $364.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 79,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,477,180. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 37,935 shares of company stock worth $10,809,461 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $350.90 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $398.88. The business’s fifty day moving average is $338.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $243.49. 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 has a market cap of $285.98 billion, a PE ratio of 287.62, a P/E/G ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $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. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

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.