Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Purchased by Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 481.6% in the fourth quarter, ending with 4,862 shares valued at about $931,000.
• Institutional ownership in PANW remains very high, with hedge funds and other institutional investors controlling 79.82% of the company’s stock. Several major holders, including Vanguard, State Street, and Geode, also added to their positions.
• Palo Alto Networks reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.85 on revenue of $3.0 billion, both beating expectations, while analysts broadly remain constructive with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $306.59.

Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 481.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,862 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 4,026 shares during the quarter. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $12,512,533,000 after buying an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,736,916 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $6,055,031,000 after purchasing an additional 505,924 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $1,415,364,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,528,248 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,532,902,000 after purchasing an additional 36,511 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Palo Alto Networks

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted rapid adoption of Prisma AIRS, saying customer growth and larger AI security deals are boosting Palo Alto Networks’ revenue potential and may be becoming a major growth engine. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Scotiabank raised its FY2027 EPS estimate for Palo Alto Networks and kept a bullish view with a $320 price target, signaling confidence in the company’s longer-term earnings power.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary across cybersecurity names suggests AI-driven security demand is becoming a stronger investment theme, which could help sentiment toward PANW as it expands into protecting AI agents and workloads.
• Neutral Sentiment: Northland Securities maintained a “Market Perform” rating and $302 target while updating several forward EPS estimates, indicating a neutral stance rather than a strong bullish or bearish call.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data showed no meaningful change, so it does not appear to be a major driver of the stock right now.
• Negative Sentiment: Northland cut its FY2026 and FY2027 EPS estimates for Palo Alto Networks, which could weigh on the stock if investors worry that earnings growth may be moderating.
• Negative Sentiment: Scotiabank also trimmed its FY2026 EPS estimate slightly, showing that while analysts remain constructive, near-term profit expectations are not uniformly improving.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Citigroup reissued a "market outperform" rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $306.59.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $802,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 150,250 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $24,103,105. This represents a 3.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John P. Key sold 1,572 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.32, for a total transaction of $272,459.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,466,400. This represents a 7.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 72,076 shares of company stock worth $17,930,587. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $263.22 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $302.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $214.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 215.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.67 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $211.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $187.90.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.37 EPS. Palo Alto Networks's quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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. Analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS 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.

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