Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 30.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 47,070 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 10,971 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $9,632,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at about $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% in the first quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $358,000 after buying an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,410,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares during the last quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% in the second quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $37,181,000 after buying an additional 49,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,119,000 after buying an additional 9,766 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $207.89 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $217.94. The stock has a market cap of $139.06 billion, a PE ratio of 129.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $196.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $190.29.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly 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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, September 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $216.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total transaction of $25,594,426.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 149,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,616,344.80. This trade represents a 44.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

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.