Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Holdings Raised by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 15.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 53,485 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $65,796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,568,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,776 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $1,415,364,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $304.20 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $241.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $196.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $247.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 249.34, a P/E/G ratio of 11.30 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $306.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted 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 company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm 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 expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $3,490,500. This represents a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 345 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.17, for a total value of $100,108.65. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,135,361.03. This trade represents a 4.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 106,389 shares of company stock worth $27,570,630 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $253.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, UBS Group set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $306.59.

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.