State of Michigan Retirement System Acquires 400 Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 0.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 180,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $36,835,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. iA Global Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 73,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,112,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares during the last quarter. Tredje AP fonden boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 30.4% during the 2nd quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 417,731 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $85,484,000 after acquiring an additional 97,324 shares during the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 134,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,595,000 after acquiring an additional 9,872 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 30.6% in the second quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 8,345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,708,000 after buying an additional 1,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 37.5% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 51,287 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,495,000 after buying an additional 13,987 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. New Street Research raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $232.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $215.00 price target (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.9%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $220.24 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $147.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $204.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $194.30.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total transaction of $25,594,426.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 149,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,616,344.80. This trade represents a 44.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,215,130 shares of company stock worth $243,407,367. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.