Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 1.5% – Time to Sell?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares fell 1.5% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $310.46 and last traded at $314.15. 6,165,428 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 32% from the average daily volume of 9,023,519 shares. The stock had previously closed at $319.00.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $220.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group set a $300.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $340.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.48.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $256.03 billion, a PE ratio of 257.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $303.77 and a 200-day moving average of $219.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the 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 sale, the director directly owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,500. This represents a 37.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 235,983 shares in the company, valued at $61,037,002.95. The trade was a 21.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360 over the last ninety days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $65,796,000 after purchasing an additional 53,485 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $104,774,000 after buying an additional 29,230 shares during the last quarter. B&D White Capital Company LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the first quarter worth approximately $353,000. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% during the first quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,453,000 after buying an additional 4,659 shares during the period. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,926,000 after buying an additional 3,926 shares during the last quarter. 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.