Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Up 1.4% – Here’s What Happened

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares were up 1.4% during mid-day trading on Monday. The stock traded as high as $356.00 and last traded at $346.95. Approximately 4,593,748 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 44% from the average session volume of 8,170,779 shares. The stock had previously closed at $342.00.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on PANW shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Arete Research boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $185.00 to $433.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 target price (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 28th. Finally, Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, September 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $400.00 price target on the stock. Thirty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $278.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 667.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.99 and a beta of 0.93. 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 has a fifty day moving average price of $371.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $304.63.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business 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. On average, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total value of $373,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,031,317.57. This represents a 15.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total transaction of $7,533,600.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029 in the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Solstein Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $26,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% in the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) is a global cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and digital infrastructure. Its offerings are designed to prevent cyberattacks, identify security risks, monitor activity, and support incident response across enterprise, government, and service-provider environments.

The company’s portfolio includes network security products such as next-generation firewalls and security operations tools; Prisma, its cloud security platform; and Cortex, a suite focused on endpoint protection, threat detection, security analytics, and automated response.