Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Director James Goetz Sells 20,000 Shares

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Director James Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total value of $5,598,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock traded down $4.84 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $279.70. 4,973,637 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,517,944. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $218.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $189.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 229.26, a P/E/G ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 0.94. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $302.95.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $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, equities analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 568,804 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $104,774,000 after acquiring an additional 29,230 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth about $75,412,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 48,458 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,926,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 134.1% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 672,129 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $136,859,000 after acquiring an additional 384,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,364,442 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $277,828,000 after acquiring an additional 8,344 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PANW has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Benchmark boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $270.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $320.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 target price (up from $220.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $306.59.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.