Insider Selling: Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells $102,099.40 in Stock

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Aparna Bawa sold 260 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.69, for a total transaction of $102,099.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,836,611.13. The trade was a 5.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Aparna Bawa also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 15th, Aparna Bawa sold 500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.18, for a total transaction of $188,590.00.
• On Monday, September 14th, Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total transaction of $373,610.00.
• On Wednesday, July 1st, Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total transaction of $101,134.60.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW traded up $17.35 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $392.09. The company had a trading volume of 5,988,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,412,000. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $356.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $277.55. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $398.88. The firm has a market cap of $320.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 768.82, a PEG ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 earnings per share. 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, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. FBN Securities restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, August 20th. BTIG Research increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $404.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Stephens set a $400.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $390.47.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Solstein Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% in the fourth quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% during the second quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.