Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Sold by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC decreased its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 65.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,027 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 51,180 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $4,612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $282,000. Ascent Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 64.5% in the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 4,105 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $700,000 after buying an additional 1,609 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 707.1% in the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 84,806 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $14,471,000 after buying an additional 74,298 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.1% in the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 45,947 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,840,000 after buying an additional 4,215 shares during the period. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.4% in the first quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 31,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,290,000 after buying an additional 426 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.5%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $198.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $132.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 123.57, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $210.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $188.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $185.88.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for 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%.Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.05, for a total transaction of $160,840.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 42,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,450,734.65. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at $34,008,788.94. The trade was a 40.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 569,422 shares of company stock valued at $106,629,618 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PANW. Northland Securities cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $215.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Twenty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.68.

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.