19,835 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Sold by Strategic Planning Group LLC

Key Points

• Strategic Planning Group LLC cut its Palo Alto Networks stake by 85% in the third quarter, selling 19,835 shares and retaining 3,488 shares valued at approximately $1.39 million.
• Institutional investors own 79.82% of PANW, with major holders including State Street, Bank of America, UBS Asset Management and BlackRock.
• Analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook, with 39 Buy ratings and 11 Holds producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $398.55. Palo Alto Networks also exceeded quarterly EPS and revenue estimates, reporting $1.02 EPS and $3.41 billion in revenue.

Strategic Planning Group LLC reduced its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 85.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,488 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 19,835 shares during the quarter. Strategic Planning Group LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,386,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,979,497 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $12,610,748,000 after buying an additional 1,493,179 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $7,734,973,000 after buying an additional 205,123 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,778,963 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,993,802,000 after buying an additional 706,003 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $1,968,304,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Capital One Financial upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $421.00 to $428.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $525.00 target price (up from $475.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Scotiabank downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a "sector outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Argus reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $425.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating and set a $440.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $354.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $432.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $290.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 695.94, a PEG ratio of 9.99 and a beta of 0.93. The company's fifty day moving average is $369.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $307.28.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. Palo Alto Networks's revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. Analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total transaction of $7,533,600.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John P. Key sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.03, for a total value of $940,075.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,300. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc NASDAQ: PANW is a global cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and digital infrastructure. Its offerings are designed to prevent cyberattacks, identify security risks, monitor activity, and support incident response across enterprise, government, and service-provider environments.

The company's portfolio includes network security products such as next-generation firewalls and security operations tools; Prisma, its cloud security platform; and Cortex, a suite focused on endpoint protection, threat detection, security analytics, and automated response.

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