Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Earns “Buy” Rating from Rosenblatt Securities

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Rosenblatt Securities in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $225.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ target price points to a potential upside of 37.61% from the stock’s current price.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $220.74.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $163.50 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $223.61. The company has a market cap of $113.96 billion, a PE ratio of 103.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.75. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $192.21.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.09. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.81 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.650-3.700 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.780-0.800 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total transaction of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 298,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. This represents a 28.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $2,441,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 75,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,685,690.72. The trade was a 14.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995 over the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after buying an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,375,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,568,964,000 after buying an additional 2,065,776 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,934,935,000 after acquiring an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,415,364,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Key Palo Alto Networks News

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 operational beat — Palo Alto reported $1.03 EPS and roughly $2.59B revenue, topping consensus and showing ~15% YoY revenue growth and 33% growth in Next?Generation Security ARR, supporting the company’s platform momentum. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Raised revenue outlook — Management lifted full?year revenue guidance to roughly $11.28B–$11.31B (from ~$10.5B prior), which signals stronger top?line expectations even as margins are pressured. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Product & research cadence — Palo Alto announced new offerings (MSIAM 2.0) and released its Unit 42 report on AI?driven threats, underscoring product innovation and thought leadership in AI security but with uncertain near?term financial impact. Article Title Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst tone mixed but constructive — Some sell?side checks (BTIG, others) stay positive on demand and firewall momentum though price targets have been trimmed amid sector valuation pressure. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Margin/earnings pressure from M&A — Reuters reports Palo Alto trimmed an annual profit forecast citing deal?related costs to bolster AI capabilities; that comment triggered an after?hours selloff as investors fretted about near?term margin dilution. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance reaction — Media coverage noted the fiscal Q3 profit guidance and commentary disappointed some investors despite beats, contributing to the share decline in extended trading. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Acquisition noise — The announcement of an intent to acquire Koi (agentic endpoint focus) drew investor concern about integration and near?term costs; coverage linked the deal to the volatility. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Price target adjustments — Some analysts trimmed targets (e.g., Mizuho lowered to $205) reflecting valuation risks and near?term uncertainty even as ratings remain constructive. Article Title

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The firm develops a broad suite of security products and services designed to prevent successful cyberattacks and protect enterprise networks, clouds, and endpoints. Built around a platform strategy, its offerings target threat prevention, detection, response and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The company’s product portfolio includes next?generation firewalls as a core on?premises capability, alongside cloud?delivered security services and software for securing public and private clouds.