Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) CEO Sells $172,718,016.48 in Stock

Key Points

• Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the company at an average price of $204.06, totaling approximately $172.72 million, significantly reducing his ownership stake by 75.48%.
• The company's stock is currently trading at $200.70, with a market capitalization of $134.25 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.05.
• Palo Alto Networks reported earnings of $0.95 per share for the previous quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, and set a guidance of $3.750-3.850 EPS for FY 2026.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded down $2.55 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $200.70. 5,156,554 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,403,125. The business has a 50-day moving average of $189.17 and a 200-day moving average of $186.89. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $210.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.05, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (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 analysts' expectations of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. Palo Alto Networks's revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company 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. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 4,031 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 115.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 43,985 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $8,004,000 after purchasing an additional 23,586 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 86.6% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 227,913 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $41,471,000 after purchasing an additional 105,766 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 98.0% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 85,437 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $15,546,000 after purchasing an additional 42,277 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Twenty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $212.39.

About Palo Alto Networks

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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