Blue Trust Inc. Grows Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,416 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 519 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $904,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. St. Clair Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $381,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $955,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. GSG Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,154,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 4,047 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $691,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $212.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $215.00 price target (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.95.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $208.55 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $139.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.94, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $217.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $192.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $189.17.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total value of $25,594,426.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 149,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,616,344.80. This represents a 44.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 96,135 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,629,805.65. This trade represents a 4.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.