The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Lowers Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 14.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 753,622 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 129,797 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 0.09% of Palo Alto Networks worth $256,985,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after acquiring an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 11,100.0% in the second quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 560 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.0% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 4,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PANW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Stephens set a $400.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Mizuho set a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $386.32.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $338.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $349.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $260.57. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $398.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $275.87 billion, a PE ratio of 663.72, a P/E/G ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total transaction of $336,312.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 72,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,085,821.12. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total transaction of $101,134.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,244,839.38. This represents a 4.31% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 9,667 shares of company stock valued at $3,058,443 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.