Kera Capital Partners Inc. Buys Shares of 1,657 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• Kera Capital Partners Inc. purchased 1,657 shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. valued at approximately $339,000, indicating increasing institutional interest in the cybersecurity company.
• Wall Street analysts have shown positive sentiment towards Palo Alto Networks, with eighteen firms rating it as a "Buy," and the consensus price target is set at $211.68.
• Insider activity included notable sales, with EVP Lee Klarich selling 120,774 shares, reducing his ownership by over 40%, amidst a trend where 2.50% of shares are owned by insiders.

Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,657 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $339,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $31,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $33,000. SWAN Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. SWAN Capital LLC now owns 200 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $225.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. TD Securities reissued a "buy" rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $211.68.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 177,954 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $34,008,788.94. The trade was a 40.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.20, for a total transaction of $128,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 37,723 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,948,576.60. This trade represents a 1.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 569,422 shares of company stock valued at $106,629,618. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.0%

PANW opened at $196.29 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $210.39. The company has a market cap of $131.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 122.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $188.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $185.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.

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