Ballentine Partners LLC Decreases Stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Ballentine Partners LLC decreased its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,328 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 207 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $2,727,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.3%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $200.70 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $134.25 billion, a PE ratio of 125.05, a P/E/G ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $210.39. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $189.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $186.99.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. UBS Group set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Twenty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $212.39.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,415,030 shares of company stock worth $279,198,494. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.