Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 94,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,198,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aviva PLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $104,774,000 after purchasing an additional 29,230 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $75,412,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 134.1% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 672,129 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $136,859,000 after buying an additional 384,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,364,442 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $277,828,000 after buying an additional 8,344 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $293.09 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $238.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 240.24, a PEG ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $238.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $195.35. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $302.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company 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, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on PANW. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group set a $300.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $306.59.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $802,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 150,250 shares in the company, valued at $24,103,105. The trade was a 3.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.40, for a total transaction of $177,540.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 83,136 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,418,150.40. This trade represents a 1.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 106,389 shares of company stock valued at $27,570,630. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.