Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Boosts Stock Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 33.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 76,369 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,206 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $15,550,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,275 shares during the period. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth about $282,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 64.1% in the first quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 256 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Integrity Alliance LLC. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,165,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,685,690.72. This represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 46,005 shares in the company, valued at $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 261,248 shares of company stock worth $53,316,149. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on PANW. New Street Research increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Thirty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.99.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $189.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $131.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.63, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.76. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $144.15 and a one year high of $223.61. The business’s fifty day moving average is $193.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $196.15.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.