Bank of America Corp DE Has $3.60 Billion Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 16.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 3,101,267 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 2.75% of Palo Alto Networks worth $3,603,473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Steph & Co. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% during the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% in the 4th quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% in the 4th quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 81,636 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,272,790.88. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,037,002.95. The trade was a 21.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on PANW. Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $255.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating and issued a $350.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $314.15 on Thursday. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $305.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $220.50. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $368.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $256.03 billion, a PE ratio of 257.50, a PEG ratio of 11.84 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company's revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.37 EPS. 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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.