Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 3.6% Following Insider Selling

Key Points

• Palo Alto Networks shares fell 3.6% to $403.83 after director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares for approximately $103,070, reducing her holdings by 5.35%.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive, with 38 analysts rating PANW a Buy and 12 a Hold; the stock has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $392.38 price target.
• The company recently exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.02 in EPS and $3.41 billion in revenue, up 34.5% year over year.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report)'s stock price was down 3.6% on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $397.71 and last traded at $403.83. 4,794,137 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 42% from the average session volume of 8,228,138 shares. The stock had previously closed at $418.78.

Specifically, Director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.28, for a total value of $103,070.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,427 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,825,163.56. This represents a 5.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $410.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $370.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday. Thirty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $392.38.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $330.33 billion, a PE ratio of 791.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.05 and a beta of 0.93. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $370.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $294.16.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. The business's revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Solstein Capital LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% during the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 148.1% during the first quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 201 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in 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 is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.

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