Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells 20,000 Shares

Key Points

• Palo Alto Networks director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares at an average price of $376.68, generating proceeds of approximately $7.53 million.
• PANW reported quarterly earnings of $1.02 per share, beating estimates by $0.04, while revenue rose 34.5% year over year to $3.41 billion.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus, with a $390.02 average price target; shares recently traded at $371.76, near the company’s 12-month high.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock traded up $8.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $371.76. 5,136,355 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,482,035. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $398.88. The firm has a market cap of $304.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 728.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.46 and a beta of 0.91. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $352.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $269.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. 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. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the subject of several research reports. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, September 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a "buy" rating and set a $430.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Thirty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $390.02.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $65,796,000 after acquiring an additional 53,485 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $104,774,000 after acquiring an additional 29,230 shares in the last quarter. B&D White Capital Company LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth approximately $353,000. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $2,159,000. Finally, Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% during the 1st quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.

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