Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Reduces Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund decreased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 31.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 120,396 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 54,200 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $24,638,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth about $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $358,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. Avity Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $37,181,000 after acquiring an additional 49,971 shares during the period. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $33,119,000 after purchasing an additional 9,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.0% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 137,663 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $23,491,000 after purchasing an additional 10,180 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on PANW. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, September 15th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. New Street Research lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, UBS Group set a $245.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, September 26th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $220.29 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $221.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $201.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $192.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.35 billion, a PE ratio of 137.25, a P/E/G ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 32,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,564,943.84. The trade was a 2.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.