Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Stock Sold by Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC

Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 3,451 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks accounts for 1.7% of Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $8,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PANW. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,833,462,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,968,304,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $415.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $390.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings raised Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, New Street Research set a $415.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Thirty-eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $391.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total value of $10,769,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,110,900. The trade was a 18.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 53,960 shares of company stock worth $20,719,959. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW traded up $20.28 on Friday, reaching $418.78. 3,833,698 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,246,200. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $369.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $292.37. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $432.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $342.56 billion, a PE ratio of 821.15, a PEG ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 0.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.