Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Falls 1.3% – Should You Sell?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares dropped 1.3% on Thursday. The company traded as low as $361.68 and last traded at $370.27. 5,322,507 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 35% from the average session volume of 8,184,506 shares. The stock had previously closed at $375.04.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price 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. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $440.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $390.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $393.02.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $302.88 billion, a PE ratio of 726.03, a P/E/G ratio of 11.43 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $372.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $299.16.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John P. Key sold 2,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.03, for a total value of $940,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,300. This trade represents a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029 in the last three months. 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 made changes to their positions in PANW. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,979,497 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,610,748,000 after purchasing an additional 1,493,179 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew 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 last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,778,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,993,802,000 after buying an additional 706,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.4% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,466,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,036,648,000 after buying an additional 273,103 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.