Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 1.3% – What’s Next?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price fell 1.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $361.68 and last traded at $370.27. Approximately 5,322,507 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 35% from the average daily volume of 8,184,506 shares. The stock had previously closed at $375.04.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Northland Securities set a $360.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $440.00 price objective (up from $410.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $410.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $393.02.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 7.6%

The firm has a market cap of $279.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 670.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $372.66 and its 200-day moving average is $301.02.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.28, for a total value of $103,070.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Solstein Capital LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $26,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% in the second quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EMC Capital Management bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.