Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Stock: Pinkerton Wealth LLC Cuts Position

Pinkerton Wealth LLC decreased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,334 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 8,299 shares during the period. Pinkerton Wealth LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $5,298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 265.3% during the third quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 17,060 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,778,000 after purchasing an additional 12,390 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% in the third quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 632 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $248,425,000. Stevens Capital Partners purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $270,000. Finally, Elevation Capital Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $206,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $365.87 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $299.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 717.41, a PEG ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $432.33. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $372.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $269.89.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. The company’s revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. 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. Equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director John Key sold 2,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.03, for a total value of $940,075.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,300. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total transaction of $10,769,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,110,900. The trade was a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029 over the last 90 days. 0.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 target price (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. HSBC reduced their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $201.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Capital One Financial lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $421.00 to $428.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stephens set a $400.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Thirty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.55.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) is a global cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and digital infrastructure. Its offerings are designed to prevent cyberattacks, identify security risks, monitor activity, and support incident response across enterprise, government, and service-provider environments.

The company’s portfolio includes network security products such as next-generation firewalls and security operations tools; Prisma, its cloud security platform; and Cortex, a suite focused on endpoint protection, threat detection, security analytics, and automated response.