Weaver Capital Management LLC Purchases New Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Weaver Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,729 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $687,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. WealthPLAN Partners LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC now owns 1,269 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $504,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% in the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,851 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,119,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the period. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% during the third quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 9,803 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,895,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Purus Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 12.8% during the third quarter. Purus Wealth Management LLC now owns 835 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SBE LLC DBA Cedar Cove Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% during the third quarter. SBE LLC DBA Cedar Cove Wealth Partners now owns 2,209 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $878,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, September 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $326.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $390.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Wedbush initiated coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $400.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $370.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $393.02.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $370.27 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $432.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $302.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 726.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $373.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $300.73.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. 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. On average, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total transaction of $7,533,600.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total value of $373,610.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $2,031,317.57. This represents a 15.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.