Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Rating Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Citigroup

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) was upgraded by analysts at Citigroup from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday, Zacks reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Scotiabank downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $440.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $393.02.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW opened at $370.27 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $302.88 billion, a PE ratio of 726.03, a P/E/G ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $139.57 and a 1-year high of $432.33. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $373.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $300.73.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company 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, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total transaction of $336,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 72,484 shares in the company, valued at $27,085,821.12. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total value of $10,769,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,110,900. This trade represents a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp raised its stake 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 buying an additional 1,493,179 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake 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 buying an additional 205,123 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $2,993,802,000 after acquiring an additional 706,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth about $1,968,304,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.