Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 1% After Insider Selling

Key Points

• Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) shares fell by 1% after Chief Accounting Officer Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares at an average price of $184.20, reducing his ownership by 1.82%.
• Brokerage firm ratings for the stock vary significantly, with price targets ranging from $177.00 to $228.00 and an overall consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."
• In its latest quarterly earnings, Palo Alto Networks reported earnings per share of $0.95, beating expectations and reflecting a 15.8% increase in year-over-year revenue.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) dropped 1% during mid-day trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $181.91 and last traded at $183.99. Approximately 1,724,415 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 6,447,744 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.88.

Specifically, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was 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. The trade was a 1.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PANW. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. JMP Securities restated 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. Finally, Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $215.00 price target (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.52.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.0%

The stock has a market capitalization of $122.71 billion, a PE ratio of 114.66, a PEG ratio of 4.53 and a beta of 0.94. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $190.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $186.32.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter valued at about $810,047,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $633,068,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 98.0% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,158,580 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,120,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,047,625 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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