Canandaigua National Trust Co of Florida Makes New Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Canandaigua National Trust Co of Florida acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 3,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,351,000. Palo Alto Networks makes up approximately 0.8% of Canandaigua National Trust Co of Florida’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $25,833,462,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,968,304,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the 1st 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 buying an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on PANW shares. Northland Securities set a $360.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $371.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Truist Financial set a $400.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stephens set a $400.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, August 28th. Thirty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $391.32.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,110,900. This trade represents a 18.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total transaction of $7,533,600.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 53,960 shares of company stock valued at $20,719,959 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Palo Alto Networks

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI and cybersecurity momentum: PANW benefited from a broad rally in cybersecurity stocks after Zscaler reaffirmed its fiscal 2027 earnings outlook. Investor interest is also increasing in security tools designed to protect AI agents, following CrowdStrike’s accelerator with Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA. Palo Alto Networks Stock Reaches New Highs: What’s Happening?
• Positive Sentiment: Strong operating results and outlook: The company’s latest quarterly revenue increased 34.5% year over year to $3.41 billion, exceeding estimates, while earnings of $1.02 per share also topped expectations. Management’s fiscal 2027 EPS guidance of $4.16–$4.19 reinforces expectations for continued growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Favorable analyst positioning: Sell-side firms broadly maintain a constructive view, with 38 analysts issuing Buy ratings and 12 assigning Hold ratings. The overall consensus is “Moderate Buy,” although the average price target of $391.32 is below recent trading levels. Palo Alto Networks Rated Moderate Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Long-term performance remains a selling point: A $1,000 investment held for ten years substantially outperformed the S&P 500, highlighting PANW’s successful expansion from firewall products into a broader cloud, endpoint and AI-security platform. However, past performance does not eliminate valuation risk. A $1,000 Bet on Palo Alto Networks Beat the S&P 500
• Negative Sentiment: Very elevated valuation: PANW’s market capitalization is approximately $332 billion, while its reported P/E ratio is near 800. The stock’s rally has pushed it above the consensus price target, increasing the risk of consolidation or profit-taking if growth expectations moderate.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sale: Chief Accounting Officer Josh Paul sold 400 shares worth approximately $158,280. The transaction reduced his holdings by only 0.51%, so it is a limited signal, but it may add to short-term selling pressure. Palo Alto Networks Insider Selling

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW traded down $14.34 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $405.57. 3,888,749 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,289,067. The company has a market cap of $331.76 billion, a PE ratio of 795.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 0.93. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $139.57 and a 52-week high of $432.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $365.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

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.