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

California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 14.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,181,703 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 145,322 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $189,451,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares during the period. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 11,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 560 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $115,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares during the period. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 4,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $900,000 after buying an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Berenberg Bank upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $319.00 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $259.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 261.48, a PEG ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.91. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.80. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $303.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $219.63.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business 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. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 81,636 shares in the company, valued at $23,272,790.88. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This trade represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.