Capital Investment Counsel Inc Acquires New Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Capital Investment Counsel Inc bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,085 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total value of $153,979.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,449,674.85. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 96,135 shares in the company, valued at $19,629,805.65. This represents a 4.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,215,830 shares of company stock worth $249,160,428. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Twenty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $220.95.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 2.5%

PANW stock opened at $204.77 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $140.06 billion, a PE ratio of 127.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.99 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $208.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.90. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.