Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $430.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price increased by analysts at Scotiabank from $320.00 to $430.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 12.69% from the company’s current price.

PANW has been the subject of several other reports. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.87.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW traded up $10.00 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $381.59. The stock had a trading volume of 3,712,676 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,539,045. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $344.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $249.03. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $398.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $311.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 312.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.74 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly 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. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 145,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 37,735 shares of company stock worth $10,814,266 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 416,578,710 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during 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 during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.