Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. Increases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 11.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 53,592 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,662 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks comprises about 1.7% of Laffer Tengler Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $10,912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $29,000. MTM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Caitlin John LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 39.7% in the third quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 176 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. HSBC lowered their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Truist Financial set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 target price (down from $245.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total value of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 298,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This represents a 28.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 139,068 shares of company stock worth $26,600,684 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $156.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.37 billion, a PE ratio of 86.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 0.78. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $190.58.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.650-3.700 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.780-0.800 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

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.