Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading 5.5% Higher – Still a Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price traded up 5.5% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $367.50 and last traded at $366.34. Approximately 8,076,416 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 10% from the average session volume of 8,968,474 shares. The stock had previously closed at $347.13.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Guggenheim downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “reduce” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.76.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $314.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $226.04. The stock has a market cap of $292.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 294.66, a P/E/G ratio of 12.31 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $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 year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This trade represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $65,796,000 after acquiring an additional 53,485 shares during the period. Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $104,774,000 after acquiring an additional 29,230 shares during the period. B&D White Capital Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $353,000. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% in the first quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.