Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Has $44.30 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its Palo Alto Networks stake by 10% in Q4, buying 21,776 more shares and bringing its holding to 240,488 shares worth about $44.3 million.
• Palo Alto Networks reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.85 beating estimates and revenue of $3 billion topping expectations, while revenue rose 31.1% year over year.
• Analysts remain bullish on PANW, with several firms raising price targets and the stock carrying a Moderate Buy consensus rating and an average target of $306.59.

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 240,488 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 21,776 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $44,298,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during 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 during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,528,248 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,532,902,000 after purchasing an additional 36,511 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $279.62 on Monday. The company's 50 day moving average is $216.44 and its 200-day moving average is $189.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $302.95. The firm has a market cap of $227.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 229.20, a P/E/G ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 0.94.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total value of $313,588.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 81,636 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,272,790.88. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 536 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $150,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,704 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,157,120. The trade was a 6.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 81,044 shares of company stock valued at $20,424,722 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $220.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Berenberg Bank raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. BTIG Research raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $268.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $306.59.

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.

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