Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Palo Alto Networks has a consensus analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 49 firms, with 40 buy ratings and an average 1-year price target of about $331.48.
• The company recently posted better-than-expected earnings, reporting $0.85 EPS on $3.0 billion in revenue, both above analyst estimates, while revenue rose 31.1% year over year.
• Despite the positive outlook, insiders have been selling shares and the stock fell 2.9% in the latest session, though institutional investors still own nearly 79.82% of the company.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the forty-nine research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation, forty have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $331.4783.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. FBN Securities reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group set a $300.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Argus set a $425.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 10.61% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth approximately $38,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Steph & Co. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% during the 4th quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sittner & Nelson LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% in the 4th quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of PANW stock opened at $325.63 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $299.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $216.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $265.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 266.91, a PEG ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 0.91. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $368.80.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm 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 expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.

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