Washburn Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Washburn Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 5.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 540 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks makes up about 1.0% of Washburn Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Washburn Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,028,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,712,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,541,637 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the first 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 worth $1,177,765,000 after acquiring an additional 950,765 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth approximately $810,047,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,422,037 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $754,576,000 after acquiring an additional 219,111 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 0.5%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $219.23 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $205.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $194.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.64 billion, a PE ratio of 136.59, a P/E/G ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $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, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $34,008,788.94. This represents a 40.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were 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 owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,564,943.84. This trade represents a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 1,094,356 shares of company stock valued at $222,684,964 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.