Gradient Investments LLC Acquires 7,423 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Gradient Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 5.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 152,520 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,423 shares during the quarter. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $31,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $810,047,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 92.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,951,283 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,895,000 after purchasing an additional 2,862,718 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 18,802.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,410,290 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $411,292,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,539 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,735 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $662,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,688,432 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $215.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.68.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $196.29 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $210.39. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $188.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.90. The stock has a market cap of $131.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 122.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,008,788.94. This trade represents a 40.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.20, for a total value of $128,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 37,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,948,576.60. This trade represents a 1.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 569,422 shares of company stock worth $106,629,618. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.