Montchanin Asset Management LLC Invests $260,000 in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Montchanin Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,620 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $260,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Compass Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Compass Capital Management Inc. now owns 74,418 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,931,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 24.8% in the 1st quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 256,415 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $39,991,000 after purchasing an additional 50,952 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 19,899 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,190,000 after purchasing an additional 2,278 shares during the period. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC now owns 2,729 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the period. Finally, Front Row Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34.9% during the 1st quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 1,211 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $194,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. This represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total value of $101,134.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,244,839.38. This represents a 4.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $331.83 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market cap of $270.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 271.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $308.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $222.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.770-3.790 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PANW. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $350.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Capital One Financial set a $421.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, HSBC raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a report on Thursday, June 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next?generation firewalls as a core on?premises capability, alongside cloud?delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.