Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Up 1.8% – Should You Buy?

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s stock price rose 1.8% during trading on Friday. The company traded as high as $409.50 and last traded at $403.24. 4,825,604 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 42% from the average session volume of 8,347,169 shares. The stock had previously closed at $396.25.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PANW has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Stephens set a $400.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Robert W. Baird set a $420.00 price target on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $371.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $391.32.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $283.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $329.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 790.68, a PEG ratio of 11.44 and a beta of 0.93.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%.The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. The business’s 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. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.68, for a total value of $7,533,600.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total transaction of $336,312.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 72,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,085,821.12. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,260 shares of company stock valued at $20,804,474. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,833,462,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,968,304,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,569,755,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,481,236,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,476,753 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,603,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101,267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.