Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by Wedmont Private Capital

Wedmont Private Capital grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,297 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $65,796,000 after buying an additional 53,485 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $104,774,000 after purchasing an additional 29,230 shares during the period. B&D White Capital Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $353,000. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $2,159,000. Finally, Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% during the first quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,453,000 after buying an additional 4,659 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on PANW shares. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, August 28th. BMO Capital Markets restated 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. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Thirty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $391.32.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total value of $336,312.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 72,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,085,821.12. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John P. Key sold 2,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.03, for a total transaction of $940,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,300. This trade represents a 20.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 53,960 shares of company stock valued at $20,719,959. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW traded up $19.29 during trading on Friday, hitting $417.79. 1,904,626 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,235,061. The firm has a market capitalization of $341.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 818.78, a P/E/G ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 0.93. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $432.33. The business’s fifty day moving average is $369.15 and its 200 day moving average is $292.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. 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. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.