Woodward Diversified Capital LLC Has $901,000 Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Woodward Diversified Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,402 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the period. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,712,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541,637 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the first 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 buying an additional 2,134,735 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,902,048 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,177,765,000 after buying an additional 950,765 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at approximately $810,047,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,422,037 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $754,576,000 after buying an additional 219,111 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PANW. Guggenheim upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Tigress Financial assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $214.64.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of PANW opened at $206.80 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $138.33 billion, a PE ratio of 128.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.85 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $189.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $187.87. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $210.39.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm 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 predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. This trade represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at $34,008,788.94. The trade was a 40.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,314,430 shares of company stock worth $259,210,094. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks 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.