Needham & Company LLC Cuts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $200.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $230.00 to $200.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on PANW. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $240.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Thirty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $212.51.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $148.70 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $178.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $191.49. The stock has a market cap of $121.34 billion, a PE ratio of 82.15, a P/E/G ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.75. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The network technology company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.58 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 12.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.81 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.650-3.700 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.780-0.800 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,768 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.03, for a total value of $23,070,311.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 298,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $57,096,383.61. The trade was a 28.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $2,441,625.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 75,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,685,690.72. This trade represents a 14.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 260,542 shares of company stock worth $49,910,995 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Steph & Co. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 88.2% in the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 143 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sittner & Nelson LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 73.8% during the fourth quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Palo Alto Networks News

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Palo Alto announced the planned acquisition of Koi, a startup focused on agentic endpoint security — a strategic move to plug AI-related security gaps and expand its AI/security platform footprint. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) to Acquire Koi
• Positive Sentiment: Palo Alto filed an offer relating to CyberArk’s convertible notes tied to its CyberArk acquisition, signaling active balance-sheet management as it closes recent M&A. This helps reassure investors that integration and financing steps are being executed. Palo Alto Networks Announces Offer to Purchase Relating to CyberArk Software Ltd.’s Notes
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarter showed revenue and EPS roughly in line-to-slightly-better-than expectations and management raised revenue guidance at the low end, supporting the case for durable topline growth driven by platform and subscription momentum. (Company releases and analyst coverage)
• Neutral Sentiment: Several firms reiterated Outperform/Buy ratings (e.g., Citizens JMP, Wedbush, RBC, Rosenblatt) — indicating pockets of institutional confidence even as some analysts trimmed estimates.
• Negative Sentiment: A cluster of analyst downgrades and price-target cuts hit PANW, driving headline selling and raising near-term skepticism about margin recovery amid integration costs. See coverage of the downgrade-driven selloff. Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 6.8% on Analyst Downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Susquehanna cut its price target (and multiple banks including Goldman, HSBC, Mizuho, BMO and others issued more pessimistic forecasts or lowered targets), amplifying pressure on the stock’s near-term outlook. Susquehanna Lowers Palo Alto Networks Price Target to $200.00
• Negative Sentiment: HSBC notably cut its target to $114, highlighting the range of analyst views and contributing to sentiment-driven selling. HSBC Adjusts Price Target on Palo Alto Networks to $114
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put-option buying and elevated volume/gap-down trading indicate traders are positioned for further near-term weakness; this increases volatility and can exacerbate downward moves until clarity on integration costs and margin recovery arrives.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.