Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 54,601 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,476,638 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,601 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $916,099,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Enterprise Financial Services Corp grew its position in 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 worth $308,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 327.4% during the 2nd quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 11,386 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,330,000 after acquiring an additional 8,722 shares during the period. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC now owns 3,196 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $654,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 82.0% in the second quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 4,979 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,019,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 198.7% during the second quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 3,763 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,503 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on PANW. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (up from $235.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Northland Securities raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $182.90 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $208.77 and a 200-day moving average of $197.37. The company has a market capitalization of $125.10 billion, a PE ratio of 115.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.95. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 19th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter 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. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total transaction of $153,979.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 47,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,449,674.85. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,215,130 shares of company stock valued at $249,031,488. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.