Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Boosts Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 16,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 557 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,426,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was 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 owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total value of $141,512.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 1,215,130 shares of company stock worth $243,407,367 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $220.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $147.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 137.22, a P/E/G ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $204.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $194.16.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion during 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%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business 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, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Bank of America lifted their price target 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. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 15th. UBS Group set a $245.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

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.