Nicholas Wealth LLC. Buys New Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Nicholas Wealth LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 5,821 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $933,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of PANW. Aviva PLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 29,230 shares during the period. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 134.1% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 672,129 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $136,859,000 after purchasing an additional 384,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,554,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.40, for a total value of $177,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 83,136 shares in the company, valued at $13,418,150.40. The trade was a 1.31% 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, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total value of $16,270,119.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,037,002.95. The trade was a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 106,389 shares of company stock worth $27,570,630 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $304.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $247.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 249.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.30 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $306.24. The company’s 50-day moving average is $241.22 and its 200 day moving average is $196.11.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. FBN Securities reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $350.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.