Hartford Investment Management Co. Sells 451 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Hartford Investment Management Co. cut its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 39,958 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 451 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $8,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% during the first quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $358,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,410,000 after purchasing an additional 1,374 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,119,000 after buying an additional 9,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avity Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% in the second quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $37,181,000 after buying an additional 49,971 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’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 transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,415,030 shares of company stock worth $279,198,494 over the last quarter. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on PANW. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $232.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. New Street Research boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp cut 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 issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $212.39.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $202.21 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $189.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $187.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.99, a PEG ratio of 4.78 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $210.39.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The business 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%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. 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 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.