Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 18,448 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• Commonwealth Equity Services reduced its Palo Alto Networks stake by 4.7%, selling 18,448 shares in the third quarter and retaining 375,072 shares valued at about $149 million.
• Palo Alto Networks reported quarterly EPS of $1.02, beating the $0.98 consensus, while revenue of $3.41 billion exceeded estimates and rose 34.5% year over year.
• Analysts’ consensus rating is “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $398.55; the stock opened at $314.67 on Friday after a reported 9.6% decline.

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 4.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 375,072 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 18,448 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $149,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. now owns 1,334 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $530,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $86,000. Northeast Investment Management increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northeast Investment Management now owns 155,568 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $61,809,000 after buying an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,951 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $775,000 after buying an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Financial Management LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC now owns 10,093 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $4,010,000 after buying an additional 1,098 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 9.6%

PANW opened at $314.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 617.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.98 and a beta of 0.96. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $371.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $272.93. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $432.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. The business'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. Analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director John Key sold 2,500 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,760,300. This trade represents a 20.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks 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 owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,031,317.57. This represents a 15.54% 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 three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. New Street Research set a $415.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $326.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Roth Capital restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $300.00 price objective (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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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