Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 12.8% – Should You Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares rose 12.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $387.33 and last traded at $382.85. 7,282,089 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 15% from the average daily volume of 8,586,228 shares. The stock had previously closed at $339.31.

Key Palo Alto Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst price-target support: JPMorgan raised its price target on Palo Alto Networks to $384 while maintaining a positive view. BTIG also reaffirmed its “Buy” rating with a $380 target, reinforcing confidence in the company’s outlook. JPMorgan Raises Palo Alto Networks Price Target BTIG Reaffirms Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings momentum: Palo Alto Networks beat quarterly EPS and revenue expectations, with revenue growth accelerating to 31.1% year over year. Investors are also looking ahead to Wall Street’s estimates for the quarter ended July 2026, including recurring revenue and other operating metrics. Palo Alto Networks Q4 Estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market focus: Next week’s August jobs report could influence interest-rate expectations and valuation-sensitive technology stocks such as PANW. August Jobs Report Preview
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Chief Accounting Officer Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares for approximately $318,000, reducing his position by 1.21%. He still retained about 73,354 shares, making the transaction relatively small but a potential short-term sentiment headwind. SEC Insider Transaction Filing

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Mizuho set a $415.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $475.00 price target (up from $420.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, August 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.87.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 12.8%

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $341.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $312.02 billion, a PE ratio of 313.81, a P/E/G ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total value of $101,134.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,437 shares in the company, valued at $2,244,839.38. This trade represents a 4.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.77, for a total value of $318,393.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 73,354 shares in the company, valued at $25,950,444.58. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 38,835 shares of company stock worth $11,127,854 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 417,760,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $142,464,656,000 after buying an additional 416,578,710 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp raised 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 acquiring an additional 594,789 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,734,973,000 after purchasing an additional 205,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.