Hennessy Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 609 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth about $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,410,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $33,119,000 after buying an additional 9,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avity Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% in the 2nd quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $37,181,000 after buying an additional 49,971 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.0%

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $207.19 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $212.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $190.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $188.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.09, a P/E/G ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $214.64.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,564,943.84. This represents a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,194,356 shares of company stock valued at $235,092,941. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.