Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Given “Outperform” Rating at Wedbush

Wedbush restated their outperform rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $225.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on PANW. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $212.39.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.9%

PANW stock opened at $203.12 on Monday. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $210.39. The firm has a market cap of $135.87 billion, a PE ratio of 126.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $187.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.20.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total value of $17,280,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.20, for a total value of $128,940.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 37,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,948,576.60. This represents a 1.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 569,422 shares of company stock valued at $106,629,618 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth about $810,047,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $633,068,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 92.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,951,283 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,082,895,000 after purchasing an additional 2,862,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 18,802.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,410,290 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $411,292,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,539 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.