Mizuho Markets Americas LLC Takes Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 2,328 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $373,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $65,796,000 after acquiring an additional 53,485 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $104,774,000 after acquiring an additional 29,230 shares during the period. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% during the 1st quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,453,000 after acquiring an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,926,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,554,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 79,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,477,180. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $350.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Guggenheim lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “reduce” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned 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 $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $323.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $368.80. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $300.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $217.58. The firm has a market cap of $263.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 265.40, a PEG ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.770-3.790 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next‑generation firewalls as a core on‑premises capability, alongside cloud‑delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.