Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. Purchases 173 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,449 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Ranch Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $706,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 30.1% during the 2nd quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,166 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $853,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares during the period. CNB Bank lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 6,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,353,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 13.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 4,466 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. now owns 13,844 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,833,000 after purchasing an additional 625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 186.3% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 1,317 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $270,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $217.11 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $218.23. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $200.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $192.18. The company has a market capitalization of $145.22 billion, a PE ratio of 135.27, a P/E/G ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’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. As a group, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $217.22.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $6,564,943.84. The trade was a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s 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 directly owned 149,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,616,344.80. The trade was a 44.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.