HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 74,826 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 712,780 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 74,826 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $145,136,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Klingman & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $434,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% in the third quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the third quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% during the third quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 298,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This trade represents a 28.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Palo Alto Networks

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Long-term bull case highlighted — several analyst/commentary pieces argue PANW remains a structural growth name in cybersecurity and a smart buy for long-term investors. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company growth deals and product momentum are cited as offsets to recent analyst cuts, reinforcing the view that near-term analyst noise may not derail multi-year growth. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Q2 preview: Zacks notes PANW is entering Q2 with mid‑teen revenue growth expectations but flags decelerating ARR momentum and a premium valuation — a key focus for the upcoming print. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary: PANW recently dropped more than the broader market in intraday moves, reflecting short-term volatility ahead of earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst price-target cuts: JPMorgan lowered its PANW target to $225, and other firms (Rosenblatt, BTIG) trimmed targets (Rosenblatt to $225; BTIG to $200), which reduces near-term upside expectations despite some firms maintaining “buy” ratings. Read More. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Deal and listing risk: reports say PANW plans a dual listing on the Tel‑Aviv Stock Exchange after closing the ~$25B CyberArk acquisition — there’s short‑term investor concern about integration complexity and political/geographic exposure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical/reputational risk: Reuters reports PANW opted not to publicly tie China to a recent global hacking campaign it exposed, citing fears of retaliation — this raises potential client, regulatory and reputation considerations. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Bank of America increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Thirty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $223.97.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $166.95 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $182.26 and its 200 day moving average is $192.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.36 billion, a PE ratio of 105.66, a PEG ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.75. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 11.69% and a return on equity of 17.05%. The business’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.56 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.