Banco Santander S.A. Grows Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Banco Santander S.A. grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 26.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,346 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 9,160 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $8,826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Diversify Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the third quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 51,635 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 52.3% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 95,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $19,388,000 after purchasing an additional 32,686 shares during the period. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 134,348 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,356,000 after buying an additional 10,550 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 28,880 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,881,000 after buying an additional 4,098 shares during the period. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 3,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $634,000 after buying an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on PANW. New Street Research lowered their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.91, for a total transaction of $23,177,738.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 327,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,878,351.95. The trade was a 26.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total value of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,502,184.05. The trade was a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock opened at $148.92 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $174.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $190.68. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $223.61. The firm has a market cap of $121.52 billion, a PE ratio of 82.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.39 and a beta of 0.75.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.650-3.700 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.780-0.800 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

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.