Analysts Set Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) PT at $212.51

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-four research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $211.6190.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Barclays set a $200.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 target price (down from $245.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $209.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group dropped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 298,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,096,383.61. The trade was a 28.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.81, for a total transaction of $147,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 46,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,502,184.05. This represents a 1.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 260,542 shares of company stock valued at $49,910,995 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Klingman & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $434,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the third quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the third quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. PTM Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. PTM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $276,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $149.40 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $223.61. The company has a market capitalization of $121.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.54, a P/E/G ratio of 5.23 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $190.82.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. 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. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.