Howard Capital Management Inc. Purchases 4,665 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 28.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 20,879 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 4,665 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,273,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. St. Clair Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,233,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% in the second quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $496,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $955,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSG Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,154,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PANW. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, September 15th. Tigress Financial assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 target price for the company. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.5%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $220.29 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $147.35 billion, a PE ratio of 137.25, a PEG ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $221.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $201.67 and its 200 day moving average is $192.92.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% 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 worth $260,687,367 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.