Motco Purchases 536 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Motco raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 71,083 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 536 shares during the quarter. Palo Alto Networks accounts for approximately 1.4% of Motco’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Motco’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $14,546,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $358,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Avity Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $37,181,000 after acquiring an additional 49,971 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,119,000 after acquiring an additional 9,766 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on PANW shares. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Piper Sandler upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $232.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Tigress Financial started coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, September 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price objective for the company. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $218.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 32,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,564,943.84. This represents a 2.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. This trade represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.5%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $221.38 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $202.47 and its 200 day moving average is $193.30. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The stock has a market cap of $148.08 billion, a PE ratio of 137.93, a P/E/G ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks 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.