William Blair Investment Management LLC Acquires Shares of 111,465 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 111,465 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,012,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% during the fourth quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% in the 4th quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total transaction of $101,134.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,244,839.38. This represents a 4.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 37,935 shares of company stock valued at $10,809,461. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $160.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $320.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.67.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.4%

PANW opened at $358.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $291.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 293.48, a PEG ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company’s 50 day moving average is $337.38 and its 200-day moving average is $241.72. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $398.88.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.37 EPS. 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 predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.