Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Lowered to Hold Rating by Phillip Securities

Phillip Securities lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Monday,Zacks reports.

PANW has been the subject of several other reports. Roth Capital reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Scotiabank cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday. Thirty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.67.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $336.98 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $350.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $257.94. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $139.57 and a 52-week high of $398.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $274.64 billion, a PE ratio of 660.76, a PEG ratio of 9.62 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The business’s revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.00, for a total transaction of $310,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 79,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,477,180. This trade represents a 1.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John Key sold 7,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total transaction of $2,094,300.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,490,500. The trade was a 37.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 38,258 shares of company stock valued at $11,050,673. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the second quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 2,127 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $725,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Wisconsin Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the second quarter. Wisconsin Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,206 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,093,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,197 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% during the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WNY Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 1,751 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $597,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides security products and services to businesses, governments and other organizations worldwide. The company helps customers protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, applications and connected devices from cyber threats.

Its portfolio includes next-generation firewalls and network security technologies, as well as cloud-delivered security solutions such as Prisma Access and Prisma Cloud. Palo Alto Networks also offers Cortex products for endpoint protection, security operations, threat detection and response, and automation.