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. In addition, the company offers cloud security, secure access, security operations, and threat intelligence and security consulting; professional services, including architecture design and planning, implementation, configuration, and firewall migration; education services, such as certifications, as well as online and in-classroom training; and support services. It sells its products and services through its channel partners, as well as directly to medium to large enterprises, service providers, and government entities operating in various industries, including education, energy, financial services, government entities, healthcare, Internet and media, manufacturing, public sector, and telecommunications. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

The cybersecurity industry is one of the attractive industries for investors right now.
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*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of July 15, 2025. The video was published on July 17, 2025.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

The Best Cybersecurity Stock to Buy Now?

At Holdings Channel, we have reviewed the latest batch of the 25 most recent 13F filings for the 06/30/2025 reporting period, and noticed that Palo Alto Networks, Inc (Symbol: PANW) was held by 14 of these funds. When hedge fund managers appear to be thinking alike, we find it is a good idea to take a closer look.
Before we proceed, it is important to point out that 13F filings do not tell the whole story, because these funds are only required to disclose their long positions with the SEC, but are not required to disclose their short positions. A fund making a bearish bet against a stock by shorting calls, for example, might also be long some amount of stock as they trade around their overall bearish position. This long component could show up in a 13F filing and everyone might assume the fund is bullish, but this tells only part of the story because the bearish/short side of the position is not seen.
Having given that caveat, we believe that looking at groups of 13F filings can be revealing, especially when comparing one holding period to another. Below, let's take a look at the change in PANW positions, for this latest batch of 13F filers:
In terms of shares owned, we count 4 of the above funds having increased existing PANW positions from 03/31/2025 to 06/30/2025, with 4 having decreased their positions and 3 new positions. Worth noting is that PGGM Investments, and Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd., included in this recent batch of 13F filers, exited PANW common stock as of 06/30/2025.
Looking beyond these particular funds in this one batch of most recent filers, we tallied up the PANW share count in the aggregate among all of the funds which held PANW at the 06/30/2025 reporting period (out of the 1,340 we looked at in total). We then compared that number to the sum total of PANW shares those same funds held back at the 03/31/2025 period, to see how the aggregate share count held by hedge funds has moved for PANW. We found that between these two periods, funds increased their holdings by 3,834,566 shares in the aggregate, from 14,133,666 up to 17,968,232 for a share count increase of approximately 27.13%. The overall top three funds holding PANW on 06/30/2025 were:
We'll keep following the latest 13F filings by hedge fund managers and bring you interesting stories derived from a look at the aggregate information across groups of managers between filing periods. While looking at individual 13F filings can sometimes be misleading due to the long-only nature of the information, the sum total across groups of funds from one reporting period to another can be a lot more revealing and relevant, providing interesting stock ideas that merit further research, like Palo Alto Networks, Inc (Symbol: PANW).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

See Which Of The Latest 13F Filers Holds PANW

Cloudflare NET stock has skyrocketed 87.3% in the past three months, outperforming the Zacks Internet - Software industry’s growth of 38.7% in the same time frame. With such a stellar performance, investors are left wondering — should they double down on NET stock, or is caution the wiser path?
Cloudflare 3 Months Price Performance Chart
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Why Did Cloudflare Stock Skyrocket?
Momentum in Cloudflare stock can be attributed to its success with Cloudflare One bookings, traction across its AI portfolio and increased acceptance by U.S. federal agencies, especially after FedRAMP certification. These factors have gained investors’ confidence for now.
However, as a result of the recent gains in the stock price, NET is now trading at a significant premium compared with the Zacks Internet - Software industry. Its forward 12-month Price/Sales of 27.72X is higher than the Zacks Internet Software Industry’s 5.7X.
NET Forward 12 Months (P/S) Valuation Chart
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Cloudflare’s near-term prospects remain foggy. The stock is not so cheap, as the Value Score of F suggests a stretched valuation at this moment. Cloudflare also faces some near-term and intrinsic challenges that might limit its growth trajectory.
Cloudflare Grapples With Macroeconomic Headwinds
A substantial portion of Cloudflare’s topline is derived from outside the United States. During the years 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020, NET earned approximately 49%, 48%, 47%, 48% and 49%, respectively, of its revenues from outside the United States. However, the U.S. government’s aggressive stance on tariffs toward major economies is a concern for Cloudflare.
Cloudflare is seeing increased traction with pool of funds deals, where customers commit a large sum for flexible usage. These contracts can delay revenue recognition, thereby creating near-term headwinds for metrics like Dollar-Based Net Retention (DBNR), which remained flat at 111% in first-quarter 2025.
These factors are impacting NET’s topline, which has been on a decline in the past three years. In 2022, NET’s annual revenues grew at a rate of 48.6%. The 2023 revenue growth rate was 33%, while the 2024 growth rate was 28.8%. The company’s full-year 2025 revenue guidance of $2.09-$2.094 billion implies just 25% growth, a further decline from its 2024 growth rate.
NET’s Shrinking Margins Due to Competitive Environment
Cloudflare operates in a highly competitive environment. In its content delivery space, companies like Amazon AMZN, Akamai Technology and Fastly compete with Cloudflare. In the cybersecurity space, a range of companies like Palo Alto Networks PANW and Zscaler ZS compete with it. Amazon also competes with its developer platform through its general-purpose serverless and container-based edge deployment solutions.
Alphabet is implementing AI in its Cloud Run solution, Amazon’s AWS Lambda & Lambda@Edge leverage deep integrations with AWS services, robust tooling and a mature developer base. Additionally, AWS Fargate is the AWS service that also enables serverless compute for containers. These solutions threaten the dominance of Cloudflare’s developer platform.
Palo Alto Networks achieved 36% year-over-year growth in SASE ARR and 16% growth in $1 million-plus deals in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, making it a dominant SASE player. Furthermore, Zscaler’s presence across multiple verticals, including SASE and zero trust, along with its rapid market expansion, puts Cloudflare under pressure from market expansion and product innovation.
To survive in the highly competitive cybersecurity market, each player must continually invest in broadening its capabilities. Over the past few years, Cloudflare has invested heavily to enhance its sales and marketing capabilities, particularly by increasing its international presence. This has negatively impacted its operating margins. Cloudflare’s bottom-line growth rate is pegged at mid single digits for the full-year 2025.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What Should Investors Do?
While Cloudflare's recent stock surge and strong market position are encouraging, its high valuation warrants caution. Furthermore, as NET seems to grapple with macroeconomic and operational headwinds, investors should stay away from the stock at present. Cloudflare currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

NET Surges 87.3% in 3 Months: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?

Among the underlying components of the S&P 500 index, we saw noteworthy options trading volume today in Abbott Laboratories (Symbol: ABT), where a total of 30,443 contracts have traded so far, representing approximately 3.0 million underlying shares. That amounts to about 48% of ABT's average daily trading volume over the past month of 6.3 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $122 strike call option expiring July 18, 2025, with 1,901 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 190,100 underlying shares of ABT. Below is a chart showing ABT's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $122 strike highlighted in orange:
Palo Alto Networks, Inc (Symbol: PANW) options are showing a volume of 22,160 contracts thus far today. That number of contracts represents approximately 2.2 million underlying shares, working out to a sizeable 46.7% of PANW's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 4.7 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $200 strike call option expiring July 18, 2025, with 1,961 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 196,100 underlying shares of PANW. Below is a chart showing PANW's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $200 strike highlighted in orange:
And Centene Corp (Symbol: CNC) saw options trading volume of 70,371 contracts, representing approximately 7.0 million underlying shares or approximately 43.7% of CNC's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 16.1 million shares. Especially high volume was seen for the $25 strike put option expiring August 15, 2025, with 23,104 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 2.3 million underlying shares of CNC. Below is a chart showing CNC's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $25 strike highlighted in orange:
For the various different available expirations for ABT options, PANW options, or CNC options, visit StockOptionsChannel.com.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Notable Thursday Option Activity: ABT, PANW, CNC

Okta OKTA is stepping up its efforts in identity protection by putting artificial intelligence (AI) at the center of its security strategy. The company's Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI advanced features enables customers to detect and respond to identity-based threats in real time and prevent damage before it occurs.
This AI approach supports Okta's growing portfolio, which includes Identity Governance, Privileged Access, Fine-Grained Authorization, Device Access and Identity Security Posture Management. The company is also expanding its security tools to protect non-human identities like service accounts and bots, which is a growing concern in today's cloud and AI environments. This all fits into a larger zero-trust model, where no user or device is trusted by default.
A major boost to this AI-driven vision comes from Okta’s new partnership with Palo Alto Networks PANW. This integration creates a unified security architecture that allows organizations to automate threat detection and response, secure application access across any device and streamline identity workflows without compromising security. Through this collaboration, Okta’s threat detection is now integrated into Palo Alto’s powerful security platforms — Cortex XSIAM and XDR — creating a comprehensive response to the most advanced attacks.
With nearly 2,000 shared customers, Okta and Palo Alto Networks are joining forces to make security tools work better together. Their partnership helps businesses automate protection, simplify operations and adopt AI faster.
Okta Faces Rising Pressure in IAM Space
Okta is facing significant competition from CyberArk Software CYBR and Microsoft MSFT in the identity and access management (IAM) domain.
CyberArk leads the Privileged Access Management space, strengthened by its Zilla Security and Venafi acquisitions, expanding into Identity Governance and machine identity protection. In the first quarter of 2025, the company posted 43% revenue growth and improved margins, driven by the company’s robust dominance in identity security. CyberArk’s continuous investments in its product suite and go-to-market are noteworthy.
Microsoft’s Entra ID poses a significant challenge with its fully integrated Identity and Access Management platform. Serving over 900 million monthly active users, the company offers advanced tools like Single Sign-On, Multi-Factor Authentication, Conditional Access and Identity Protection. Microsoft delivers these capabilities at scalable levels, from free to P2, supported by centralized control and global reach, reinforcing its dominance in secure identity solutions.
OKTA’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
Shares of Okta have appreciated 18.8% year to date compared with the Zacks Security industry’s return of 15.6%.
OKTA's YTD Price Return Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation perspective, Okta, trading at a forward Price/Cash Flow ratio of 21.44, is slightly lower than the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s 21.7X. OKTA has a Value Score of D.
OKTA Forward 12-Month Price/CF Ratio
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for OKTA’s second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at 84 cents per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, indicating 16.67% year-over-year growth.
The consensus mark for fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.28 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days. The earnings figure suggests 16.73% growth over the figure reported in fiscal 2025.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
OKTA stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Okta Emphasizes AI-Driven Security: Can PANW Advance Its Lead?

Looking today at week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, one standout is the JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (Symbol: JEPQ) where we have detected an approximate $102.2 million dollar outflow -- that's a 0.4% decrease week over week (from 517,350,000 to 515,475,000). Among the largest underlying components of JEPQ, in trading today Honeywell International Inc (Symbol: HON) is down about 0.3%, Analog Devices Inc (Symbol: ADI) is down about 0.6%, and Palo Alto Networks, Inc (Symbol: PANW) is relatively unchanged. For a complete list of holdings, visit the JEPQ Holdings page » The chart below shows the one year price performance of JEPQ, versus its 200 day moving average:
Looking at the chart above, JEPQ's low point in its 52 week range is $44.311 per share, with $58.54 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $54.44. Comparing the most recent share price to the 200 day moving average can also be a useful technical analysis technique -- learn more about the 200 day moving average ».
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) trade just like stocks, but instead of ''shares'' investors are actually buying and selling ''units''. These ''units'' can be traded back and forth just like stocks, but can also be created or destroyed to accommodate investor demand. Each week we monitor the week-over-week change in shares outstanding data, to keep a lookout for those ETFs experiencing notable inflows (many new units created) or outflows (many old units destroyed). Creation of new units will mean the underlying holdings of the ETF need to be purchased, while destruction of units involves selling underlying holdings, so large flows can also impact the individual components held within ETFs.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Notable ETF Outflow Detected - JEPQ, HON, ADI, PANW

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Below is Validea's guru fundamental report for PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC (PANW). Of the 22 guru strategies we follow, PANW rates highest using our P/B Growth Investor model based on the published strategy of Partha Mohanram. This growth model looks for low book-to-market stocks that exhibit characteristics associated with sustained future growth.
PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC (PANW) is a large-cap growth stock in the Software & Programming industry. The rating using this strategy is 88% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
Detailed Analysis of PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC
More Information on Partha Mohanram
About Partha Mohanram: Sometimes the best investing strategies don't come from the world of investing. Sometimes research that changes the investing world can come from the halls of academia. Partha Mohanram is a great example of this. While academic research has shown that value investing works over time, it has found the opposite for growth investing. Mohanram turned that research on its head by developing a growth model that produced significant market outperformance. His research paper "Separating Winners from Losers among Low Book-to-Market Stocks using Financial Statement Analysis" looked at the criteria that can be used to separate growth stocks that continue their upward trajectory from those that don't. Mohanram is currently the John H. Watson Chair in Value Investing at the University of Toronto and was previously an Associate Professor at the Columbia Business School.
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About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Validea Detailed Fundamental Analysis - PANW

Below is Validea's guru fundamental report for PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC (PANW). Of the 22 guru strategies we follow, PANW rates highest using our P/B Growth Investor model based on the published strategy of Partha Mohanram. This growth model looks for low book-to-market stocks that exhibit characteristics associated with sustained future growth.
PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC (PANW) is a large-cap growth stock in the Software & Programming industry. The rating using this strategy is 88% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
Detailed Analysis of PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC
More Information on Partha Mohanram
About Partha Mohanram: Sometimes the best investing strategies don't come from the world of investing. Sometimes research that changes the investing world can come from the halls of academia. Partha Mohanram is a great example of this. While academic research has shown that value investing works over time, it has found the opposite for growth investing. Mohanram turned that research on its head by developing a growth model that produced significant market outperformance. His research paper "Separating Winners from Losers among Low Book-to-Market Stocks using Financial Statement Analysis" looked at the criteria that can be used to separate growth stocks that continue their upward trajectory from those that don't. Mohanram is currently the John H. Watson Chair in Value Investing at the University of Toronto and was previously an Associate Professor at the Columbia Business School.
Additional Research Links
About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

PANW Quantitative Stock Analysis

The first half of 2025 is officially in the books, and despite the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) logging a gain of around 5% for the period, it certainly wasn't smooth sailing for investors. The index was sitting on a year-to-date loss of 15% at its low point in April, after President Donald Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on imported goods from all of America's trading partners.
Even though the broader market has recovered, some growth stocks like SentinelOne (NYSE: S) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) are still trading in the red for the year. However, a rebound might be in the cards for those two names during the second half of 2025, given the strength of their underlying businesses and their leadership positions in areas like artificial intelligence (AI).
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Here's why SentinelOne and Alphabet might be two great stocks to own in the final six months of this year.
The case for SentinelOne
SentinelOne developed an AI-powered cybersecurity platform called Singularity, which offers comprehensive protection for cloud networks, employee identities, endpoints (computers and devices), and more. It autonomously tracks and eliminates threats, and it can even produce detailed summaries of each incident to save human managers from completing hours of manual investigative work.
Purple AI is SentinelOne's AI-powered virtual assistant that is embedded in Singularity to help employees speed up cybersecurity workflows. But in April, the company launched a new version called Purple AI Athena with expanded capabilities. It's an AI agent designed to think and reason like a highly experienced human, but at machine speed so it's far more effective. It learns from security incidents and helps managers set up automated workflows that allow it to remediate similar events in the future.
SentinelOne generated $229 million in total revenue during its fiscal 2026 first quarter (ended April 30). It was a 23% increase from the year-ago period, which was a solid growth rate at face value, except it represented a deceleration from the 29% growth the company delivered in the previous quarter three months earlier. Plus, management actually reduced its full-year forecast for fiscal 2026 by around 1%, to $998.5 million (at the midpoint of the guidance range).
Management cited macroeconomic uncertainties for the downward revision, even though SentinelOne isn't directly affected by the recent global trade turmoil because it sells digital software products, and penalties like tariffs primarily affect physical imports. However, its customers come from many different industries and if their businesses suffer a slowdown, they might cut their cybersecurity spending.
Fortunately, the majority of Trump's most aggressive tariffs were rolled back after April, so this might be less of a concern for SentinelOne in the coming quarters. That presents investors with an interesting opportunity, because its stock is still down by 20% this year. Moreover, it's significantly cheaper than its rivals in the AI-powered cybersecurity space, based on its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 6.6:
As a result, I think the setup looks great for a potential rebound in SentinelOne stock in the second half of 2025.
The case for Alphabet (Google)
Alphabet is the parent company of Google, YouTube, DeepMind, and self-driving car powerhouse Waymo. The majority of the conglomerate's revenue comes from the advertising dollars generated by Google Search, but this valuable income stream remains under threat by the growing adoption of AI chatbots, which are stealing traffic from traditional internet search engines.
To combat this, Alphabet launched AI Overviews, which appear above the traditional Google Search results. They combine text, images, and links to third-party sources to answer users' queries, saving them from having to sift through web pages to find the information they need. Alphabet is hoping this creates enough convenience to stop people from abandoning Google Search, and it seems to be working as planned because at the end of the first quarter of 2025, the company said 1.5 billion people were using Overviews every month.
But Alphabet also used its Gemini family of large language models (LLMs) to launch its own AI chatbot of the same name, so it's competing with the likes of OpenAI for the attention of users who prefer these tools over traditional search engines. Plus, Alphabet has embedded Gemini into Google Workspace applications like Docs, Sheets, and Gmail, which should prevent users from venturing outside its ecosystem in the hunt for information.
Finally, Google Cloud deserves a special mention because it's regularly the fastest growing piece of the entire Alphabet conglomerate. Google Cloud operates state-of-the-art data centers filled with AI chips from leading suppliers like Nvidia, and leases the computing capacity to businesses for profit. Plus, its Vertex AI platform offers developers access to more than 200 foundation models (like Gemini) which they can use to accelerate their AI software projects.
Alphabet generated $90.2 billion in total revenue in the first quarter of 2025, which was up 12% from the year-ago period. That included $50.7 billion in Google Search revenue, which grew by 10%, and $12.2 billion in Google Cloud revenue, which was up 28%. The company also delivered $2.81 in earnings per share (EPS), which takes its trailing-12-month EPS to $8.97.
Based on that trailing EPS figure, Alphabet stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 19.8 as of this writing (June 28), which makes it the cheapest member of an elite group known as the "Magnificent Seven." These seven companies are at the cutting edge of most segments of the tech industry, including AI:
Alphabet stock is trading at a discount right now because of its ongoing legal battle with the Department of Justice (DOJ), which won a verdict that the conglomerate engages in monopolistic practices. Investors are waiting for the judge to hand down a formal punishment, but the case could be tied up in court for several more years while the appeals process plays out.
However, AI could be the biggest opportunity in Alphabet's history, so services like Google Cloud and Gemini could be more important to the company's financial success from here than legacy businesses like Google Search (which is the subject of its legal woes). I think Alphabet's attractive valuation sets the stage for a strong second half of 2025, as investors turn more of their attention to the success of its AI products and services.
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, CrowdStrike, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and Zscaler. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

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