Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 16.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 195,958 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,642 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $65,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $299,000. Glenview Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,299,000. North Star Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the second quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,355,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% in the second quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 223,656 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $76,271,000 after buying an additional 2,178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Camarda Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,288,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Palo Alto Networks

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Benchmark raised its price target to $400 from $340 and maintained a Buy rating, citing potential upside to next-generation security annual recurring revenue, revenue, operating income and margins. The forecast reinforces expectations that Palo Alto Networks’ AI-security strategy is gaining traction. Palo Alto Networks Gets a $400 Target
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are taking confidence from CrowdStrike’s stronger-than-expected results, which highlighted robust AI-related cybersecurity demand and lifted sentiment across the sector. Palo Alto Networks is viewed as a potential beneficiary of the same spending cycle. Palo Alto Networks Stock Trades Up
• Positive Sentiment: Platformization, adoption of AI-security products and recent deal wins are expected to support fourth-quarter growth. BTIG also assigned PANW a Buy rating, adding to broadly favorable analyst coverage. Palo Alto Networks to Report Q4 Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings are the next major catalyst. Traders expect potentially significant movement after the report, while analysts are watching recurring revenue, margins, operating income and guidance—not just revenue and EPS. Expected Post-Earnings Stock Move
• Negative Sentiment: Acquisition-related costs could pressure results, and the stock’s triple-digit P/E ratio—above 300 based on the supplied data—means much of the AI-growth outlook may already be reflected in the price. Any shortfall in growth or guidance could trigger profit-taking. Palo Alto’s Rally Has One Big Problem Ahead of Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Chief Accounting Officer Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares for approximately $318,000, reducing his position by 1.21%. The transaction is small relative to his remaining holdings but may create a modest sentiment headwind. Palo Alto Networks Insider Sale

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $371.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $398.88. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $344.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $248.45. The company has a market capitalization of $302.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 304.58, a PEG ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.37 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $326.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $434.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Berenberg Bank increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. FBN Securities reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price target (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total value of $101,134.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,244,839.38. The trade was a 4.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at $2,045,721.30. The trade was a 10.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 38,835 shares of company stock valued at $11,127,854 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks 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.