Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 3.9% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) dropped 3.9% on Friday. The stock traded as low as $359.76 and last traded at $365.87. 7,462,566 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 8% from the average daily volume of 8,070,798 shares. The stock had previously closed at $380.57.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on PANW shares. Loop Capital increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $360.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.9%

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $372.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $269.89. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $299.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 717.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 0.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. The company’s revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $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, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh Paul sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $395.70, for a total value of $158,280.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 77,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,859,455.90. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.28, for a total transaction of $103,070.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at $1,825,163.56. The trade was a 5.35% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its holdings 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 last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.