Westside Investment Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 39.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,025 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 578 shares during the quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $411,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. St. Clair Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the second quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% in the second quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,271 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. TFG Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the second quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 4,668 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $955,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, GSG Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the first quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,154,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on PANW. KeyCorp lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. New Street Research lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 96,135 shares in the company, valued at $19,629,805.65. This represents a 4.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 1,094,356 shares of company stock valued at $222,684,964 over the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $219.23 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $205.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $194.84. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $223.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 136.59, a P/E/G ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 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 firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period last 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current 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.