Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Increases Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 267,927 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,771 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $54,829,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,712,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541,637 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,234,650,000 after acquiring an additional 2,134,735 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,902,048 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,177,765,000 after acquiring an additional 950,765 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth about $810,047,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,422,037 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $754,576,000 after acquiring an additional 219,111 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $203.25 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $189.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $186.89. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.15 and a 12 month high of $210.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $135.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.64, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Bank of America raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Twenty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $212.39.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.20, for a total value of $128,940.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 37,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,948,576.60. The trade was a 1.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 563,622 shares of company stock valued at $105,459,528 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.