Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report)'s stock price was up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Friday 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 $208.98 and last traded at $207.89. Approximately 4,300,616 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 32% from the average daily volume of 6,294,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at $205.51.
Several other analysts also recently commented on PANW. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. BTIG Research raised Palo Alto Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. New Street Research boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $207.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, September 15th. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $216.60.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Palo Alto Networks
Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks
In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.19, for a total transaction of $1,020,950.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 96,135 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,629,805.65. The trade was a 4.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,315,130 shares of company stock worth $260,687,367 over the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks
Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $29,000. Finally, MTM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $31,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Palo Alto Networks Price Performance
The firm has a market cap of $139.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 129.53, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.98. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $195.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $190.04.
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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.
About Palo Alto Networks
(
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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.
Further Reading
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