Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Up 2.7% – What’s Next?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price traded up 2.7% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $295.54 and last traded at $293.09. Approximately 8,900,372 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 5% from the average session volume of 9,399,274 shares. The stock had previously closed at $285.26.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report 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. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price (up from $220.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 3.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company has a market capitalization of $247.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 249.34, a P/E/G ratio of 10.88 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.11.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 37.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 106,389 shares of company stock worth $27,570,630. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after buying an additional 2,659,100 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position 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 valued at $3,603,473,000 after acquiring an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after acquiring an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth $1,415,364,000. 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.