Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) Buy Rating Reiterated at BTIG Research

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at BTIG Research in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $380.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective points to a potential upside of 11.80% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $345.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. 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 research note on Thursday, August 20th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $390.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.87.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.1%

PANW stock opened at $339.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $277.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 278.61, a P/E/G ratio of 11.76 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $339.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $244.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $398.88.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total value of $101,134.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,244,839.38. This represents a 4.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,045,721.30. This represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 37,935 shares of company stock valued at $10,809,461 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $28,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, TOP Private Wealth LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.