New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $95.95 Million Position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its position in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 520,925 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 5,369 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Palo Alto Networks were worth $95,954,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $75,412,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 134.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 672,129 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $136,859,000 after buying an additional 384,985 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,364,442 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $277,828,000 after buying an additional 8,344 shares in the last quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 240.1% during the 3rd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 11,732 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,389,000 after acquiring an additional 8,282 shares during the period. Finally, Generali Investments Management Co LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Generali Investments Management Co LLC now owns 54,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $11,077,000 after acquiring an additional 15,091 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Arete Research upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.07.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora bought 68,085 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $146.87 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,643.95. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 343,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,434,276.78. This represents a 24.73% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.40, for a total value of $177,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 83,136 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,418,150.40. This represents a 1.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 30,356 shares of company stock worth $4,981,575. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $179.32 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $223.61. The firm has a market cap of $146.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.07, a PEG ratio of 6.54 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $163.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $181.41.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.14 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.