VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 37,617 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 37,617 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,828,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 417,760,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $142,464,656,000 after acquiring an additional 416,578,710 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,734,973,000 after buying an additional 205,123 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,934,935,000 after acquiring an additional 540,756 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $333.26 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $398.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $271.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 653.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.62 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $350.21 and a 200-day moving average of $256.64.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total value of $336,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 72,484 shares in the company, valued at $27,085,821.12. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total value of $101,134.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,244,839.38. This represents a 4.31% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,635 shares of company stock valued at $11,150,578. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Stephens set a $400.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective (up from $370.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 target price (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, August 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 target price (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Thirty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.67.

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.