Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Acquires 29,137 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 18.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 188,235 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,137 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $30,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PANW. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 932.7% in the 1st quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 197,529 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $31,668,000 after acquiring an additional 178,401 shares during the last quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the first quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. now owns 6,100 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $978,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.4% during the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 43,252 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,934,000 after acquiring an additional 1,018 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.6% during the first quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 89,601 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $14,365,000 after purchasing an additional 1,405 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,542,415 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $247,280,000 after purchasing an additional 149,111 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. HSBC lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Northland Securities increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $318.65.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,058,590. The trade was a 3.33% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $325.91 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $265.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 267.14, a PEG ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $274.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $206.76.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.37 EPS. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.