Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 3.7% – Here’s What Happened

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price traded up 3.7% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $326.30 and last traded at $325.68. Approximately 6,773,299 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 25% from the average daily volume of 9,013,099 shares. The stock had previously closed at $314.15.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on PANW shares. Argus set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price (up from $220.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 3.7%

The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $265.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 266.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.84 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $305.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $220.50.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.37 EPS. 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total transaction of $16,270,119.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,037,002.95. This trade represents a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $23,272,790.88. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360 in the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 raised 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 buying an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in 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 valued at $3,603,473,000 after buying an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in 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 valued at $2,934,935,000 after buying an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.