Birchbrook Inc. Has $1.23 Million Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Birchbrook Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1,975.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,611 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 3,437 shares during the period. Birchbrook Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,231,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in 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 during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after buying an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,415,364,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 79,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,477,180. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% 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 valued at $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Stephens lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $350.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, HSBC upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.76.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.2%

PANW stock opened at $363.86 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $317.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $228.20. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $376.98. 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 $296.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 298.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.