First Merchants Corp Cuts Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

First Merchants Corp lowered its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,188 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $652,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Dagco Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stonebridge Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 46.8% during the 1st quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC now owns 232 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $215.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $143.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 134.06, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $217.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $192.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $189.02.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $212.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. New Street Research upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Twenty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total transaction of $25,594,426.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 149,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,616,344.80. This trade represents a 44.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.