Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. Makes New Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 1,197 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $232.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Piper Sandler upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. This trade represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $259,351,606 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $207.19 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $138.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.09, a P/E/G ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $212.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $190.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $188.21.

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

About Palo Alto Networks

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.