Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Up 2.8% on Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price traded up 2.8% during trading on Monday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $320.00 to $430.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $383.73 and last traded at $382.13. 8,736,392 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average daily volume of 8,570,434 shares. The stock had previously closed at $371.59.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. HSBC upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $345.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.87.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This trade represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 37,735 shares of company stock worth $10,814,266 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 417,760,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $142,464,656,000 after acquiring an additional 416,578,710 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp boosted 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 purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,734,973,000 after purchasing an additional 205,123 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $344.62 and a 200 day moving average of $249.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $311.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 313.22, a PEG ratio of 11.74 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

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.