Boston Common Asset Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Boston Common Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 10.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 47,194 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,618 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $7,566,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PANW. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $65,796,000 after purchasing an additional 53,485 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $104,774,000 after purchasing an additional 29,230 shares during the period. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% during the 1st quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,554,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $222.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, UBS Group set a $300.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $327.74.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $358.68 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $290.04 and a 200-day moving average of $212.48. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.80. The company has a market capitalization of $292.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 294.00, a PEG ratio of 13.32 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.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm 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. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 79,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,477,180. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.