Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Sells 700 Shares

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 5,898 shares in the company, valued at $2,045,721.30. The trade was a 10.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 4.9%

Shares of PANW stock traded down $16.45 on Wednesday, reaching $320.59. 9,325,879 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,361,012. The company has a market capitalization of $261.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 262.78, a PEG ratio of 13.28 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $265.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $203.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $139.57 and a twelve month high of $368.17.

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 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 analysts’ expectations 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 quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.37 earnings per share. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $253.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price target (up from $255.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Scotiabank reissued a “sector outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target (up from $180.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $316.59.

Trending Headlines about Palo Alto Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Needham raised its price target on Palo Alto Networks from $350 to $425 and reiterated a Buy rating, signaling continued confidence in upside potential. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG also lifted its price target on PANW from $333 to $380 and kept the stock as a top pick, reinforcing the bullish analyst sentiment behind the shares. Yahoo Finance
• Positive Sentiment: Articles pointing to roughly 60% growth in next-gen security revenue and strong agentic AI-related momentum suggest the company’s fundamentals remain healthy and a key driver of investor optimism. FXEmpire
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary notes PANW has surged sharply over the past six months and is hovering near all-time highs, which may be prompting profit-taking after the recent rally. Invezz
• Negative Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha downgrade warned that the stock’s valuation re-rating may have gone too far, adding a cautionary note for investors after the big move higher. Seeking Alpha

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after buying an additional 2,659,100 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 594,789 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,603,473,000 after acquiring an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,415,364,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.