Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Invests $288,000 in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,799 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $288,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $234,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 28.8% in the 1st quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 145,434 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $23,316,000 after purchasing an additional 32,512 shares in the last quarter. Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth $2,709,000. WBH Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 52.1% during the 1st quarter. WBH Advisory Inc. now owns 1,752 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.1% during the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 85,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,762,000 after buying an additional 11,888 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on PANW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $255.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $316.15.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 235,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,037,002.95. This trade represents a 21.05% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 102,111 shares of company stock worth $27,204,024 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $348.06 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $358.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $283.67 billion, a PE ratio of 285.30, a P/E/G ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $201.50.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $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. Equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current 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.