Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 42.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 108,160 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 80,361 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $36,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Capital One Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $421.00 to $428.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, FBN Securities reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $386.32.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW opened at $335.10 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $349.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $259.23. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $398.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market cap of $273.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 657.07, a PEG ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,058,590. The trade was a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total transaction of $2,094,300.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 37,703 shares of company stock valued at $10,900,823. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.