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

Key Points

• Oppenheimer raised its price target for Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.02% from the current stock price while maintaining an "outperform" rating.
• The stock reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.95, exceeding analysts' expectations, alongside a revenue of $2.54 billion, which was also above forecasts.
• Insider transactions show significant selling activity, with EVP Lee Klarich selling over 120,000 shares, indicating possible shifts in investor confidence.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by stock analysts at Oppenheimer from $225.00 to $245.00 in a report issued on Friday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has an "outperform" rating on the network technology company's stock. Oppenheimer's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 19.02% from the company's current price.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. KeyCorp cut Palo Alto Networks from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $212.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $232.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $216.60.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.2%

PANW opened at $205.85 on Friday. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $195.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $190.04. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $217.94. The firm has a market cap of $137.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 127.42, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.92, for a total transaction of $25,594,426.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 149,190 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,616,344.80. The trade was a 44.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $141,512.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 32,474 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,564,943.84. The trade was a 2.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock valued at $260,687,367. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $261,000. Strive Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Strive Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $358,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 10.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,125 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,410,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares during the period. Avity Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 181,691 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $37,181,000 after purchasing an additional 49,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6.4% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 161,840 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $33,119,000 after acquiring an additional 9,766 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.

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