William Blair Investment Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• William Blair Investment Management LLC significantly reduced its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, decreasing ownership by 87.1% during the second quarter, ending with 153,731 shares valued at approximately $31.46 million.
• Various institutional investors, including HWG Holdings LP and Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL, also made adjustments to their positions in Palo Alto Networks, contributing to a high institutional ownership rate of 79.82%.
• Palo Alto Networks posted $0.95 EPS in its recent quarterly earnings, surpassing the consensus estimate, and reported a revenue increase of 15.8% year-over-year.

William Blair Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 87.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 153,731 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 1,035,967 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $31,460,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 58.9% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 224 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stonebridge Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 46.8% during the 1st quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC now owns 232 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group set a $245.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $212.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. New Street Research raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $216.60.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of PANW opened at $207.89 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $196.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $190.41. The company has a market cap of $139.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.53, a P/E/G ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $217.94.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total transaction of $25,594,426.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 149,190 shares in the company, valued at $31,616,344.80. The trade was a 44.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total value of $141,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,564,943.84. The trade was a 2.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

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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