Benchmark Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price boosted by stock analysts at Benchmark from $340.00 to $400.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 11.72% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on PANW. Truist Financial set a $435.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $350.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $364.00.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $358.04 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $139.57 and a 12-month high of $398.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.80 billion, a PE ratio of 293.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $337.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $242.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. 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. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,058,590. This trade represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. The trade was a 10.61% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 37,935 shares of company stock worth $10,809,461 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 417,760,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $142,464,656,000 after purchasing an additional 416,578,710 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,587,100,000 after buying an additional 594,789 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,734,973,000 after buying an additional 205,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,934,935,000 after buying an additional 540,756 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.