Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Down 1% – Time to Sell?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price fell 1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $362.22 and last traded at $362.66. Approximately 5,518,779 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 8,936,902 shares. The stock had previously closed at $366.34.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.76.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 1.2%

The company has a market cap of $296.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 298.25, a P/E/G ratio of 12.19 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $316.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $227.25.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total value of $310,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 79,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,477,180. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. This represents a 10.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360 in the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,833,462,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,415,364,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.