Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Trading 1.3% Higher – Time to Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price traded up 1.3% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $331.08 and last traded at $330.30. Approximately 5,334,975 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 9,281,703 shares. The stock had previously closed at $325.91.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on PANW. Stifel Nicolaus set a $340.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Mizuho raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Argus raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $222.00 to $320.00 in a report on Friday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $319.96.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.3%

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $274.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $206.76. The company has a market capitalization of $269.19 billion, a PE ratio of 270.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.37 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Helle Thorning-Schmidt sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.85, for a total transaction of $242,795.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,045,721.30. This represents a 10.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 290 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.74, for a total transaction of $101,134.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,244,839.38. This trade represents a 4.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after buying an additional 2,659,100 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,587,100,000 after acquiring an additional 594,789 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the fourth 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 position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,415,364,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.