Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 19.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,455 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,215 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at $810,047,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 98.0% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,158,580 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,120,615,000 after acquiring an additional 3,047,625 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 92.7% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,951,283 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,895,000 after acquiring an additional 2,862,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 18,802.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,410,290 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $411,292,000 after acquiring an additional 2,397,539 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.00, for a total value of $122,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 41,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,452,332. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.58, for a total transaction of $20,722,402.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 206,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,468,674.44. This represents a 36.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $126,423,337 over the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twenty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.52.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of PANW opened at $184.43 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $210.39. The company has a market cap of $122.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.91, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $191.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $186.31.

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

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.