State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Raises Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 221,480 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,601 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $45,324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% in the first quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $358,000 after buying an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,410,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares in the last quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% in the second quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $37,181,000 after buying an additional 49,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,119,000 after buying an additional 9,766 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.0%

PANW opened at $217.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.22 billion, a PE ratio of 135.27, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $218.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $200.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $192.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares in the company, valued at $6,564,943.84. The trade was a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367 in the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on PANW. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, September 15th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $217.22.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

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.