8,627 Shares in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Bought by Polaris Financial Partners

Polaris Financial Partners bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 8,627 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,476,000. Palo Alto Networks comprises 1.6% of Polaris Financial Partners’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Boltwood Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 4,123 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,638,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 414.3% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 34,543 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,724,000 after purchasing an additional 27,826 shares in the last quarter. Private Client Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at $210,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 32.9% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,502 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $994,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $218,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total transaction of $373,610.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,031,317.57. The trade was a 15.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,110,900. This represents a 18.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 54,260 shares of company stock worth $20,804,474 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on PANW. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $410.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Thirty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $391.32.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock traded up $6.99 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $403.24. 4,840,545 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,347,358. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $139.57 and a 52-week high of $409.50. The stock has a market cap of $329.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 790.68, a PEG ratio of 11.44 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $360.46 and its 200 day moving average is $283.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.