Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading Down 2.1% – What’s Next?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price fell 2.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $264.42 and last traded at $266.33. 6,766,446 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 30% from the average session volume of 9,646,646 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.05.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PANW. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $160.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group set a $300.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $255.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $217.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 218.30, a P/E/G ratio of 9.55 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $205.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $186.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $802,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 150,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,103,105. This trade represents a 3.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 81,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,272,790.88. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 72,076 shares of company stock worth $17,930,587. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,512,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after purchasing an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $1,415,364,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.