Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by Whittier Trust Co.

Whittier Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,282 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $810,047,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $633,068,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after acquiring an additional 2,134,735 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $662,000,000 after acquiring an additional 1,688,432 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,712,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,541,637 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. BTIG Research raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.22.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.9%

PANW opened at $212.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $142.09 billion, a PE ratio of 132.35, a P/E/G ratio of 5.10 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $199.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $191.31. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $217.94.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total value of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,629,805.65. This trade represents a 4.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367 over the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.