Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $15.20 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 94,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,198,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PANW. Aviva PLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $104,774,000 after buying an additional 29,230 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,412,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased 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 valued at $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 134.1% during 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 period. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,364,442 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $277,828,000 after acquiring an additional 8,344 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $255.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Benchmark increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Scotiabank reissued a “sector outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $293.09 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $238.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $195.35. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $302.95. The firm 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.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% 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 this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 345 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.17, for a total transaction of $100,108.65. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,135,361.03. This represents a 4.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 106,389 shares of company stock worth $27,570,630 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.