California State Teachers Retirement System Purchases 145,322 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• California State Teachers Retirement System increased its Palo Alto Networks stake by 14%, purchasing 145,322 shares and bringing its holdings to 1.18 million shares valued at approximately $189.5 million.
• Institutional ownership remains high at 79.82%, with major investors including Norges Bank, Vanguard, Harel Insurance and Bank of America adding substantial positions.
• Palo Alto Networks exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.85 in earnings per share and $3 billion in revenue, up 31.1% year over year. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $331.48, while insiders have sold more than 101,000 shares in the past three months.

California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 14.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,181,703 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 145,322 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.14% of Palo Alto Networks worth $189,451,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1,665.1% during the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,761,909 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $442,788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,605,433 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,568,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Employees Provident Fund Board bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $281,542,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $319.00 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $303.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $219.63. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $368.80. The stock has a market cap of $259.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 261.48, a P/E/G ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. Palo Alto Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.37 EPS. 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. As a group, equities analysts predict 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, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares of the company's stock, valued at $61,037,002.95. The trade was a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on PANW. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $387.00 target price (up from $320.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Northland Securities upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Palo Alto Networks from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.