William Blair Analysts Raise Earnings Estimates for PANW

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) – Stock analysts at William Blair upped their Q2 2025 earnings per share estimates for shares of Palo Alto Networks in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, December 17th. William Blair analyst J. Ho now expects that the network technology company will post earnings per share of $0.42 for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $0.42. The consensus estimate for Palo Alto Networks’ current full-year earnings is $3.49 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Palo Alto Networks’ Q3 2025 earnings at $0.38 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $0.49 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $1.73 EPS and Q2 2026 earnings at $0.52 EPS.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS.

PANW has been the subject of several other reports. HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $215.00 in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $210.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, thirty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.40.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $189.36 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $124.26 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50 day moving average of $191.89 and a 200 day moving average of $175.31. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $130.04 and a 52 week high of $207.24.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% in the third quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS now owns 24,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,539,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. FFG Partners LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. FFG Partners LLC now owns 17,359 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,933,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at about $9,390,000. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at about $214,000. Finally, Capasso Planning Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth about $219,000. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 72,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.25, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,231,134 shares in the company, valued at $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,237,430 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 571,172 shares of company stock valued at $107,074,352 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.