Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Sold by Sapient Capital LLC

Sapient Capital LLC reduced its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 25.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 96,908 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 32,507 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $15,536,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,415,364,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1,665.1% in the 1st quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,761,909 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $442,788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,605,433 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 67.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 6,297,833 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,009,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,528,299 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $331.83 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $270.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 271.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.32 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $308.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $222.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.37 EPS. 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. Analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Northland Securities increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Capital One Financial set a $421.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective (up from $220.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.48.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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 owned by company insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.