Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells $2,094,300.00 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director John Key sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.0%

NASDAQ:PANW traded up $0.09 on Friday, hitting $279.62. The stock had a trading volume of 6,770,429 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,577,431. The business’s fifty day moving average is $214.06 and its 200 day moving average is $188.58. The company has a market cap of $227.89 billion, a PE ratio of 229.20, a P/E/G ratio of 9.77 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $302.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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. On average, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,415,364,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after buying an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1,665.1% during the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,761,909 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $442,788,000 after buying an additional 2,605,433 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 67.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 6,297,833 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,009,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,528,299 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $345.00 price objective (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $306.59.

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.