Leavell Investment Management Inc. Acquires 1,300 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Leavell Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 29.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,693 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $810,047,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $633,068,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,735 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $662,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,688,432 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,712,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541,637 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,564,943.84. This trade represents a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares in the company, valued at $19,629,805.65. This represents a 4.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on PANW shares. BTIG Research raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $232.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $215.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. UBS Group set a $245.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, August 15th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $217.22.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $217.11 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $218.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $200.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $192.59. The stock has a market cap of $145.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 135.27, a PEG ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 0.98.

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