Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Tigress Financial

Key Points

• Analysts at Tigress Financial initiated coverage of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW), assigning a buy rating and a price target of $245.00, which suggests a potential upside of 21.48% from the current stock price.
• Palo Alto Networks has received multiple ratings upgrades from various analysts, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $213.18.
• The company's recent quarterly earnings exceeded expectations, reporting $0.95 EPS against a consensus of $0.89, with a year-over-year revenue increase of 15.8%.

Investment analysts at Tigress Financial started coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage set a "buy" rating and a $245.00 price target on the network technology company's stock. Tigress Financial's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 21.48% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on PANW. Piper Sandler upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $212.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $213.18.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock traded down $0.53 on Friday, reaching $201.68. The stock had a trading volume of 999,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,376,923. The stock has a market cap of $134.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 125.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.78 and a beta of 0.98. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $210.39. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $189.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $187.18.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.20, for a total value of $128,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 37,723 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,948,576.60. This represents a 1.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,415,030 shares of company stock worth $279,198,494 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $810,047,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $633,068,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 18,802.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,410,290 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $411,292,000 after buying an additional 2,397,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,234,650,000 after buying an additional 2,134,735 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company's stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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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