Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Up 2.6% – Should You Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price shot up 2.6% during trading on Monday. The stock traded as high as $394.70 and last traded at $390.46. Approximately 5,107,218 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average daily volume of 8,106,674 shares. The stock had previously closed at $380.55.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PANW. HSBC cut their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $201.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Arete Research upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $185.00 to $433.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Capital One Financial upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $421.00 to $428.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Scotiabank lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Citizens Jmp lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $320.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Thirty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.6%

The company has a 50 day moving average of $369.33 and a 200-day moving average of $308.82. 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 has a market cap of $319.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 765.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.95 and a beta of 0.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $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, research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total transaction of $7,533,600.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total transaction of $373,610.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,031,317.57. This trade represents a 15.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $25,833,462,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $1,968,304,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 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, 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.