Blair William & Co. IL Purchases 79,978 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,237,864 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,978 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $252,054,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 96.1% during the 3rd quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 149 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. MTM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PANW. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $200.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.19.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 139,068 shares of company stock valued at $26,600,684. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.2%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $165.05 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $171.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $190.09. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $223.61. The company has a market capitalization of $134.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.19, a PEG ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.78.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The company’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.81 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.650-3.700 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.780-0.800 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.