Portland Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases New Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Portland Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,796 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $612,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $65,796,000 after buying an additional 53,485 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $104,774,000 after buying an additional 29,230 shares in the last quarter. B&D White Capital Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $353,000. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $2,159,000. Finally, Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% in the 1st quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total transaction of $101,134.60. Following the sale, the director owned 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,244,839.38. The trade was a 4.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,935 shares of company stock worth $10,809,461. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of PANW stock opened at $358.04 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $398.88. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $337.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $242.19. The stock has a market cap of $291.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 293.48, a PEG ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.770-3.790 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on PANW shares. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Mizuho set a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.67.

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.