Brown Advisory Inc. Buys 11,052 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 141,124 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,052 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $25,995,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,415,364,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,528,248 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,532,902,000 after purchasing an additional 36,511 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on PANW. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $255.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $345.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $284.54 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $302.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company’s 50-day moving average is $218.86 and its 200 day moving average is $189.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $231.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 233.23, a P/E/G ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 0.94.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at $61,037,002.95. The trade was a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora purchased 68,085 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The shares were bought at an average price of $146.87 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,643.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 343,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,434,276.78. This trade represents a 24.73% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 81,044 shares of company stock valued at $20,424,722 over 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.