Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Acquires 10,000 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Key Points

• Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its Palo Alto Networks stake by 19.5% in Q1, buying 10,000 additional shares and bringing its total to 61,368 shares worth about $9.84 million.
• Insider selling continued, with Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt and CAO Josh D. Paul both selling shares last month; overall insiders sold 101,239 shares worth $27.17 million in the last quarter.
• Palo Alto Networks reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, while analysts remain broadly bullish with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average target price of $319.96.

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Free Report) by 19.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 61,368 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $9,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Steph & Co. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% during the 4th quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% in the 4th quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Luken Investment Analytics LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 196.2% in the fourth quarter. Luken Investment Analytics LLC now owns 154 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 79,644 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,477,180. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on PANW. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $345.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Capital One Financial raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $168.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $415.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $319.96.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.3%

PANW stock opened at $330.30 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $277.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $207.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $269.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 270.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.91.

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

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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