Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Raises Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 22,774 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,791 shares during the period. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,660,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial started coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, September 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price objective for the company. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.64.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at $6,564,943.84. The trade was a 2.11% 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, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.58, for a total transaction of $20,722,402.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 206,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,468,674.44. This trade represents a 36.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $259,351,606 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of PANW opened at $207.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $138.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.09, a PEG ratio of 4.98 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $190.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $188.20. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $212.10.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. 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, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.