Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Buys 6,170 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 18.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 39,926 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 6,170 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $6,401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,568,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,776 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after buying an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,415,364,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Palo Alto Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Tigress Financial raised its price target on Palo Alto Networks from $245 to $430 and reiterated a buy rating, signaling strong upside confidence in the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Cybersecurity stocks, including PANW, are benefiting from reports that AI-driven security spending could support long-term growth as cyberattacks intensify. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: PANW also got a lift from a broader cybersecurity rally after IBM’s weak results and cybersecurity warning pushed investors toward security-focused software names. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary highlighted PANW as one of the cybersecurity stocks “riding the wave” from IBM’s earnings miss, reinforcing the sector-wide bid into defensive tech. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary from Jim Cramer and other market-watch articles called Palo Alto Networks “unbelievable” and noted strong year-to-date gains, but these pieces were more sentiment-driven than fundamental catalysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: A Zacks comparison article argued Zscaler has an edge over PANW due to valuation and integration-cost concerns, but this appears to be a relative-valuation view rather than a direct negative catalyst. Article Title

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,058,590. The trade was a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank restated a “sector outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price target (up from $180.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $253.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.98.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $354.02 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $368.17. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $283.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $288.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 290.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.10 and a beta of 0.91. 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 (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.37 earnings per share. 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. Equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company 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.