Bernard Wealth Management Corp. Increases Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Bernard Wealth Management Corp. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 16,631 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,314 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks accounts for 1.6% of Bernard Wealth Management Corp.’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. Bernard Wealth Management Corp.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. KeyCorp cut Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group set a $245.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.95.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.1%

PANW opened at $208.55 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $139.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $217.94. The business’s 50 day moving average is $192.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The company 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%.The firm’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $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 expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total value of $1,020,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 96,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.