Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Has Average Price Target of $391.32 According to Brokerages

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifty research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $391.32.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Capital One Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $421.00 to $428.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $410.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank cut Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total transaction of $10,769,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 117,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,110,900. The trade was a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.28, for a total value of $103,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,825,163.56. The trade was a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 12.8% in the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 1,599 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Oak Grove Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,761,000. Atlas Brown Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 945 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $375,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Mirador Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP now owns 50,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $20,027,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the period. Finally, GK Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $63,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $418.78 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $370.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $293.25. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $139.57 and a 52 week high of $432.33. The company has a market capitalization of $342.56 billion, a PE ratio of 821.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.47 and a beta of 0.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The business 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 for the quarter 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, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.