Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Stock Bought by Wedmont Private Capital

Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,297 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,435,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,979,497 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,610,748,000 after buying an additional 1,493,179 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,734,973,000 after acquiring an additional 205,123 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,778,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,993,802,000 after purchasing an additional 706,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.4% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,466,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,036,648,000 after buying an additional 273,103 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total value of $10,769,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 117,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,110,900. The trade was a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Key sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.03, for a total transaction of $940,075.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,300. This trade represents a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,960 shares of company stock valued at $20,719,959. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $434.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Citizens Jmp upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $320.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. New Street Research set a $415.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $400.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $391.32.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded up $19.29 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $417.79. 1,904,626 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,235,061. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $341.75 billion, a PE ratio of 818.78, a PEG ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $369.15 and its 200 day moving average is $292.37. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $432.33.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $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, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.