Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Has $37.28 Million Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC lowered its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 182,164 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,007 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks accounts for approximately 1.7% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $37,278,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. SWAN Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. SWAN Capital LLC now owns 200 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $37,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. 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. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $221.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.68.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $201.34 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $210.39. The company has a market cap of $134.68 billion, a PE ratio of 125.45, a P/E/G ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $187.97 and a 200-day moving average of $186.09.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. Analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total transaction of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at $34,008,788.94. This trade represents a 40.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 569,422 shares of company stock worth $106,629,618. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.