Vestor Capital LLC Trims Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Vestor Capital LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 72.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 182 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 480 shares during the period. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $37,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cynosure Group LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 23.5% in the 2nd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 2,285 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $468,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,476,638 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $916,099,000 after purchasing an additional 54,601 shares in the last quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 13.8% during the second quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 1,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $308,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 327.4% in the second quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 11,386 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,330,000 after buying an additional 8,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WealthBridge Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% in the second quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC now owns 3,196 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $654,000 after buying an additional 129 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $183.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $128.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.95. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $223.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $208.42 and its 200 day moving average is $197.40.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.800-3.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 0.930-0.950 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. New Street Research raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at $34,008,788.94. The trade was a 40.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,215,130 shares of company stock valued at $249,031,488. Insiders own 1.40% 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.