Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by stock analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $225.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Wedbush’s price target suggests a potential upside of 23.02% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $248.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $182.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $125.10 billion, a PE ratio of 115.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $208.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $197.31. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $144.15 and a 1 year high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.800-3.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 0.930-0.950 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.11, for a total value of $23,081,119.14. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,954 shares in the company, valued at $34,008,788.94. This trade represents a 40.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,215,130 shares of company stock valued at $249,031,488. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $810,047,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $675,865,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $633,068,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after buying an additional 2,134,735 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 77.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,879,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $662,000,000 after buying an additional 1,688,432 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.