WealthShield Partners LLC Makes New $5.34 Million Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

WealthShield Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 15,673 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,345,000. Palo Alto Networks makes up approximately 0.8% of WealthShield Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $65,796,000 after buying an additional 53,485 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $104,774,000 after buying an additional 29,230 shares during the period. B&D White Capital Company LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $353,000. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $2,159,000. Finally, Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% in the 1st quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,453,000 after acquiring an additional 4,659 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 2.4%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $358.04 on Friday. 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $241.72. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $398.88. The stock has a market cap of $291.80 billion, a PE ratio of 293.48, a PEG ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial set a $435.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.67.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at $2,045,721.30. The trade was a 10.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were 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 owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 37,935 shares of company stock valued at $10,809,461 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.