Verus Capital Partners LLC Acquires 716 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Verus Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 8.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 9,014 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 716 shares during the period. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $1,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Dagco Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $41,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $216.54 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $207.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $196.47. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $144.15 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $144.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 134.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.05 and a beta of 0.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly 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. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 1,215,830 shares of company stock worth $249,160,428 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on PANW. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. New Street Research increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. 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. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Tigress Financial initiated coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, September 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price objective for the company. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.55.

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.