Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives $331.48 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-nine research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, forty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $331.4783.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Arete Research lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $185.00 to $433.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, FBN Securities reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.5%

PANW opened at $319.00 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $368.80. The company has a market cap of $259.99 billion, a PE ratio of 261.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $303.77 and a 200 day moving average of $219.63.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.770-3.790 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 81,636 shares in the company, valued at $23,272,790.88. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $1,415,364,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during 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. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1,665.1% during the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,761,909 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $442,788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,605,433 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 67.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 6,297,833 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,009,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,528,299 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.