Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Up 2% – Here’s Why

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) traded up 2% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $288.88 and last traded at $287.78. 12,139,210 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 28% from the average daily volume of 9,501,141 shares. The stock had previously closed at $282.13.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PANW. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Arete Research raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $345.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of $234.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 235.89, a PEG ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $228.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $192.65.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.37 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,500. This trade represents a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 81,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,272,790.88. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 101,044 shares of company stock valued at $26,022,722. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted 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 buying an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,603,473,000 after buying an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Hedge funds and other 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.