State Street Corp Boosts Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

State Street Corp boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 4.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 36,979,497 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,493,179 shares during the period. State Street Corp’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $12,610,748,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% in the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $371.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,359,869 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,448,706. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $398.88. The company has a 50 day moving average of $353.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $271.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $303.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 727.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.46 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.95 earnings per share. 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. On average, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total value of $336,312.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 72,484 shares in the company, valued at $27,085,821.12. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 28,322 shares of company stock worth $10,546,409 in the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Palo Alto Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Palo Alto Networks launched Unit 42 Continuous Frontier AI Defense, an agentic security service that uses gated models from Anthropic, including Claude Mythos, and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6. The service is designed to continuously identify, validate and remediate vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them, potentially expanding the company’s AI-related revenue opportunity. Palo Alto Networks AI defense service announcement
• Positive Sentiment: The announcement reinforces Palo Alto Networks’ positioning as businesses increase cybersecurity spending to address AI-driven threats and vulnerabilities. Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $410 from $394, maintained an Overweight rating and named PANW its preferred stock in the sector, citing AI-driven demand and market-share opportunities. Cybersecurity stocks and Morgan Stanley price target report
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent technical analysis identifies support near $353.70-$356 and resistance around $383, with a breakout potentially testing the 12-month high near $398.88. The stock remains well above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, but this setup leaves sentiment sensitive to momentum and broader technology-sector trading. PANW technical price forecast
• Negative Sentiment: Director James Goetz sold 20,000 PANW shares for approximately $7.5 million. While a single insider sale does not establish a broader trend, it can create a modest overhang, particularly while the stock trades at a very high price-to-earnings ratio and near its yearly peak. SEC insider transaction filing

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. Citizens Jmp raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $320.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price target (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $410.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $390.02.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.