Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Up 1.2% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) rose 1.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $370.50 and last traded at $363.86. Approximately 4,573,810 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 49% from the average daily volume of 8,888,270 shares. The stock had previously closed at $359.49.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. UBS Group set a $300.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. 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 research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $209.00 to $253.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.76.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $317.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $228.20. The stock has a market cap of $296.55 billion, a PE ratio of 298.25, a P/E/G ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.37 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,598,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at $42,058,590. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Trilogy Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the second quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 2,127 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $725,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Wisconsin Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the second quarter. Wisconsin Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,206 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,093,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,197 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. GSG Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 12,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,010,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, Outfitters Financial LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Outfitters Financial LLC now owns 3,265 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $601,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. 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.