Welch Group LLC Acquires 8,692 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Welch Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 21.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 49,841 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 8,692 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,991,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,275 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $713,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 560 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 4,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total transaction of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,500. This trade represents a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,037,002.95. This represents a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 106,389 shares of company stock valued at $27,570,630. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $304.20 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $247.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 249.34, a P/E/G ratio of 10.88 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $306.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.37 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.770-3.790 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on PANW. Robert W. Baird set a $320.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $253.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next?generation firewalls as a core on?premises capability, alongside cloud?delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.