Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Breaks Below Fifty Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price crossed below its fifty day moving average during trading on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $372.15 and traded as low as $359.76. Palo Alto Networks shares last traded at $365.87, with a volume of 7,565,498 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Mizuho set a $415.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Thirty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.55.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $372.15 and a 200 day moving average of $269.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $299.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 717.41, a PEG ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous 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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total value of $336,312.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John P. Key sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.03, for a total transaction of $940,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,300. This trade represents a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $86,000. Northeast Investment Management increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the third quarter. Northeast Investment Management now owns 155,568 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $61,809,000 after acquiring an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,951 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $775,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 12.2% during the third quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC now owns 10,093 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,010,000 after buying an additional 1,098 shares during the period. Finally, Focused Wealth Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.2% in the third quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 3,747 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,489,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.