Advisortrust Partners LLC Purchases New Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Advisortrust Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,352 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $433,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Steph & Co. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% in the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% during the 4th quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% during the 4th quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora purchased 68,085 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were purchased 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 owned 343,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,434,276.78. This represents a 24.73% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 101,044 shares of company stock worth $26,022,722. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $160.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $345.00 price objective (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Capital One Financial raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $168.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $287.78 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one 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 has a market cap of $234.54 billion, a PE ratio of 235.89, a P/E/G ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $228.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $192.65.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last 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. On average, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.