Avity Investment Management Inc. Decreases Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• Avity Investment Management cut its Palo Alto Networks position by 10.7% in the third quarter, selling 20,869 shares. It still held 173,721 shares worth approximately $69.0 million, representing 4.2% of its portfolio.
• Analysts maintain a favorable outlook, with 38 Buy ratings and 12 Holds, producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $391.32. Price targets ranged as high as $475.
• PANW shares rose 5.1% to $418.78, near their 52-week high, after the company beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates; revenue increased 34.5% year over year. However, insiders sold $20.7 million of stock over the past 90 days.

Avity Investment Management Inc. lowered its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 10.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 173,721 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 20,869 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks accounts for 4.2% of Avity Investment Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Avity Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $69,021,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,833,462,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $1,968,304,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after buying an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on PANW shares. Roth Capital reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $300.00 price objective (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and increased their price target for the company from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $434.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $391.32.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total value of $373,610.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $2,031,317.57. This trade represents a 15.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John P. Key sold 2,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,760,300. This trade represents a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 53,960 shares of company stock worth $20,719,959 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 5.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW traded up $20.28 during trading on Friday, hitting $418.78. 3,833,698 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,246,200. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market cap of $342.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 821.15, a PEG ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 0.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $369.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $292.37. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $432.33.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks's revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.

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