Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading 1.9% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Palo Alto Networks stock rose 1.9% after Oppenheimer upgraded its price target from $225.00 to $245.00, maintaining an "outperform" rating.
• The company has a market capitalization of $141.69 billion, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts and an average price target of $216.60.
• CEO Nikesh Arora sold over 846,000 shares recently, marking a significant reduction of 75.48% in his ownership stake in the company.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 1.9% on Monday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $225.00 to $245.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $212.61 and last traded at $211.82. 3,946,810 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 6,283,591 shares. The stock had previously closed at $207.89.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on PANW. Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. DA Davidson reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $215.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. BTIG Research raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, New Street Research lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Thirty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $216.60.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. This trade represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 4,031 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,275 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 1,374 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 205.6% in the first quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,145 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,443 shares during the period. Finally, Shum Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 6.6% in the first quarter. Shum Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,777 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $645,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $141.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.98. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $196.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $190.59.

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. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 17.66%. Palo Alto Networks's quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $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. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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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