Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Cut to “Hold” at Phillip Securities

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) was downgraded by analysts at Phillip Securities from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on PANW. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $434.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $394.00 target price (up from $387.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.67.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $336.98 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $350.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $257.94. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $398.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $274.64 billion, a PE ratio of 660.76, a PEG ratio of 9.62 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $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. Equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 4.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 38,258 shares of company stock valued at $11,050,673 in the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Solstein Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Sittner & Nelson LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.