Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by Simplicity Wealth LLC

Simplicity Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 96.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,572 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,260 shares during the period. Simplicity Wealth LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth about $810,047,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $633,068,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after buying an additional 2,134,735 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $662,000,000 after buying an additional 1,688,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,712,019,000 after buying an additional 1,541,637 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. UBS Group set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $214.95.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $211.04 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $214.02. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $190.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total value of $25,594,426.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 149,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,616,344.80. This represents a 44.74% 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 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $543,199,564.80. This trade represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

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.