Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $228.00 at Morgan Stanley

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target raised by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $216.00 to $228.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 10.67% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on PANW. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Tigress Financial began coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, September 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price objective for the company. Thirty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $220.92.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW traded down $4.03 on Thursday, hitting $206.01. The company had a trading volume of 1,930,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,128,861. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $208.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $196.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 128.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.95. Palo Alto Networks has a 52-week low of $144.15 and a 52-week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total value of $153,979.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,449,674.85. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total transaction of $172,718,016.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares in the company, valued at $56,119,152.78. The trade was a 75.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 1,215,830 shares of company stock valued at $249,160,428 in the last quarter. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 96.1% during the third quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 149 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.