Barrett & Company Inc. Raises Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Barrett & Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 64.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,842 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Barrett & Company Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $377,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $207.19 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.59 billion, a PE ratio of 129.09, a P/E/G ratio of 4.98 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $212.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $190.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $188.20.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $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, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at $6,564,943.84. This trade represents a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $259,351,606 in the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. KeyCorp lowered Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $232.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $214.64.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.