Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lowered its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 35,482 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 3,875 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after buying an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Ellevest Inc. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $272,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 4,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $996,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $165.05 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $171.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $190.09. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.78.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on PANW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $224.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. HSBC reduced their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $157.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective (up from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 298,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This trade represents a 28.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.18, for a total transaction of $940,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 155,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,190,293.42. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 139,068 shares of company stock valued at $26,600,684 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.