National Pension Service Sells 195,431 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

National Pension Service cut its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 9.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,955,902 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 195,431 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $667,002,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Solstein Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% in the fourth quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $27,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PANW. Wedbush upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. 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 research note on Friday, August 28th. Citizens Jmp upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $320.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Loop Capital increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Thirty-nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $386.32.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,058,590. The trade was a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 37,703 shares of company stock valued at $10,900,823. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $335.10 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $273.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 657.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The business has a fifty day moving average of $349.79 and a 200 day moving average of $259.23. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $398.88.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.