WealthShield Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

WealthShield Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 9.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 18,187 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,559 shares during the period. WealthShield Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. South Plains Financial Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. South Plains Financial Inc. now owns 4,823 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $982,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Fayez Sarofim & Co boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 4,310 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $878,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 4,227 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Outfitters Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Outfitters Financial LLC now owns 3,265 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $601,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 2,312 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $471,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total value of $313,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 81,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,272,790.88. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at $61,037,002.95. This represents a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.7%

Shares of PANW stock traded down $12.40 on Friday, reaching $325.91. 4,677,069 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,047,614. The company has a market capitalization of $265.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 267.14, a PEG ratio of 12.56 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $274.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $206.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $368.17.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PANW. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price target (up from $255.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $255.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $318.65.

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.