Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) issued its earnings results on Monday. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06, RTT News reports. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 18.55% and a net margin of 12.30%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks updated its FY 2026 guidance to 3.750-3.850 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance to 0.880-0.900 EPS.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $181.56 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $144.15 and a 12-month high of $210.39. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $191.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $186.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 113.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PANW. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $212.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Piper Sandler raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $218.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $99,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,632 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 669,248 shares of company stock valued at $126,423,337 in the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at $25,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 127.7% in the second quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 214 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11,100.0% in the second quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 560 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 555 shares during the period. State of Wyoming raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 79.1% in the second quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 641 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $153,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.