M3 Wealth Management LLC Makes New Investment in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Posted by Brian Himes on Aug 16th, 2026

M3 Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW – Free Report) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 13,512 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,608,000. Palo Alto Networks makes up about 3.0% of M3 Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth $1,415,364,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at $1,569,755,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after acquiring an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $12,512,533,000 after acquiring an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1,665.1% in the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,761,909 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $442,788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,605,433 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. FBN Securities restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $387.00 price target (up from $320.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $339.61.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on PANW

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total transaction of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $3,490,500. This trade represents a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This trade represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $384.27 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $313.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 314.98, a P/E/G ratio of 12.89 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $328.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $235.34. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $398.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report) 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for 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%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Palo Alto Networks

(Free Report)

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.