Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Bought by Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 35.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 326,158 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 85,670 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $52,290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Steph & Co. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% in the 4th quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% during the fourth quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% during the fourth quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on PANW. Northland Securities upped their target price 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. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target (up from $340.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective (up from $180.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $323.79 on Friday. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $300.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $217.58. The company has a market capitalization of $263.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 265.40, a PEG ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 0.91. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.80.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 79,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,477,180. This trade represents a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.