GC Wealth Management RIA LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

GC Wealth Management RIA LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 365.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 17,491 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 13,733 shares during the period. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $3,579,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.8% in the second quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 925 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $189,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Greenbush Financial Group LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Greenbush Financial Group LLC now owns 16,864 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,451,000 after buying an additional 576 shares during the last quarter. First County Bank CT raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. First County Bank CT now owns 10,242 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,096,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 1,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $257,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 13,792 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,822,000 after buying an additional 1,256 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.20, for a total transaction of $128,940.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 37,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,948,576.60. This represents a 1.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,415,030 shares of company stock valued at $279,198,494. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $202.37 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $210.39. The company has a fifty day moving average of $189.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $187.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.09, a PEG ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.64.

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.