Equitable Trust Co. Sells 82 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Equitable Trust Co. trimmed its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,576 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 82 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $527,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $31,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $41,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% during the first quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $215.00 price objective (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, September 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $216.00.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at $6,564,943.84. This represents a 2.11% 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 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of PANW stock opened at $206.70 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $217.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $195.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $189.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 128.79, a PEG ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.