Goelzer Investment Management Inc. Sells 4,155 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• Goelzer Investment Management reduced its Palo Alto Networks stake by 13.7%, selling 4,155 shares and retaining 26,098 shares valued at approximately $10.37 million. Institutional investors collectively own 79.82% of the company.
• Palo Alto Networks reported quarterly earnings of $1.02 per share, exceeding estimates of $0.98, while revenue rose 34.5% year over year to $3.41 billion.
• Analyst sentiment remains favorable, with the stock carrying a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $393.02, although insiders have sold more than $20.8 million in shares over the past three months.

Goelzer Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 13.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,098 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 4,155 shares during the period. Goelzer Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $10,369,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 1,117 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $444,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 472 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $188,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Riversedge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Riversedge Advisors LLC now owns 1,285 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Tenon Financial LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.3% during the third quarter. Tenon Financial LLC now owns 661 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $263,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 2,127 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $725,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $342.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $279.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 179.74, a PEG ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $372.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $301.02. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $432.33.

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

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh Paul sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $395.70, for a total value of $158,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 77,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,859,455.90. The trade was a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $370.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stephens set a $400.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $415.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $393.02.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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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