Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading 1.1% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price traded up 1.1% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $339.40 and last traded at $336.98. Approximately 5,900,281 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 31% from the average daily volume of 8,547,289 shares. The stock had previously closed at $333.26.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PANW. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $434.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Roth Capital restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Wedbush upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Thirty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $386.32.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $349.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $259.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $275.87 billion, a PE ratio of 663.72, a P/E/G ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. 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. Research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total value of $242,795.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,045,721.30. This trade represents a 10.61% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 37,703 shares of company stock worth $10,900,823. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 417,760,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $142,464,656,000 after purchasing an additional 416,578,710 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp grew 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased 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 worth $7,734,973,000 after buying an additional 205,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 540,756 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.