Profund Advisors LLC Acquires 7,238 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 13.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 61,634 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,238 shares during the quarter. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $12,613,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,712,019,000 after buying an additional 1,541,637 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,234,650,000 after acquiring an additional 2,134,735 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,902,048 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,177,765,000 after purchasing an additional 950,765 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $810,047,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,422,037 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $754,576,000 after purchasing an additional 219,111 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Mizuho increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. KeyCorp downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $218.17.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total value of $1,020,950.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,629,805.65. The trade was a 4.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total transaction of $153,979.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 47,505 shares in the company, valued at $10,449,674.85. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 1,215,830 shares of company stock valued at $249,160,428 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $212.29 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $207.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $195.99. The company has a market cap of $142.00 billion, a PE ratio of 132.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.05 and a beta of 0.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.