Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Has Average Price Target of $391.32

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifty brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirty-eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $392.38.

PANW has been the topic of several research reports. FBN Securities reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $335.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Phillip Securities cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $346.00 in a research note on Monday, September 7th. Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $320.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, New Street Research set a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total transaction of $10,769,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 117,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,110,900. This trade represents a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 400 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $395.70, for a total value of $158,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 77,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,859,455.90. The trade was a 0.51% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during 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 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 Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% during 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 worth $2,993,802,000 after purchasing an additional 706,003 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth about $1,968,304,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.7%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $397.03 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $372.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $297.62. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $432.33. 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 company has a market cap of $324.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 778.51, a P/E/G ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 0.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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 will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.