City Center Advisors LLC Invests $607,000 in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

City Center Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,781 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $607,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Steph & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% during the 4th quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% in the 4th quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% in the fourth quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $366.34 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $311.92 and a 200-day moving average of $224.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company has a market capitalization of $298.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 300.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 0.91. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $368.80.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The business 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%.The firm’s revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $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, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 ninety days, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Berenberg Bank lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. BTIG Research boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $332.57.

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.