Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) – What Are Researchers Thinking About This Stock?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fifty analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $398.55.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on PANW shares. Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $525.00 target price (up from $475.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, October 12th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $300.00 price target (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh Paul sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $395.70, for a total value of $158,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 77,987 shares in the company, valued at $30,859,455.90. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.28, for a total value of $103,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,825,163.56. This represents a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 14,330 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,693,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth about $993,000. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 12.9% in the third quarter. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. now owns 1,058 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $420,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% during the third quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC now owns 948 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 13.7% during the third quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 49,183 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $19,541,000 after acquiring an additional 5,927 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW stock opened at $314.67 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $257.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 617.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.98 and a beta of 0.96. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $432.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $371.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $272.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) is a global cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and digital infrastructure. Its offerings are designed to prevent cyberattacks, identify security risks, monitor activity, and support incident response across enterprise, government, and service-provider environments.

The company’s portfolio includes network security products such as next-generation firewalls and security operations tools; Prisma, its cloud security platform; and Cortex, a suite focused on endpoint protection, threat detection, security analytics, and automated response.