Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Time to Sell?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) fell 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $395.80 and last traded at $398.50. 4,394,883 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 8,268,592 shares. The stock had previously closed at $405.57.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial set a $400.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $390.00 price target (up from $371.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $390.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $391.32.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.7%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $367.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $290.71. The company has a market capitalization of $325.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 781.39, a PEG ratio of 12.09 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 (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the firm’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 approximately $46,110,900. This trade represents a 18.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 260 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.69, for a total value of $102,099.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,836,611.13. The trade was a 5.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 53,960 shares of company stock valued at $20,719,959. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,833,462,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,968,304,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.