Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by Webster Bank N. A.

Webster Bank N. A. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1,530.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,479 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,468 shares during the quarter. Webster Bank N. A.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,642,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth $1,415,364,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during 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 during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,568,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,776 shares during the last quarter. Employees Provident Fund Board purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $281,542,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 108.3% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,467,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $502,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282,738 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total transaction of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,037,002.95. This represents a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,389 shares of company stock worth $26,122,830. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $286.40 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $139.57 and a 52-week high of $302.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $233.42 billion, a PE ratio of 234.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $230.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $193.37.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. 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 analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stephens raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Mizuho upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $306.59.

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.