Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 5.7% – What’s Next?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price was down 5.7% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $336.00 and last traded at $337.04. Approximately 8,750,371 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 6% from the average daily volume of 9,347,821 shares. The stock had previously closed at $357.53.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PANW shares. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $318.65.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $268.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $204.73. The firm has a market cap of $275.66 billion, a PE ratio of 275.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.51 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last 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, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total value of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in 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 worth $12,512,533,000 after acquiring an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,415,364,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.