Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Upgraded at Capital One Financial

Capital One Financial upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $421.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Argus increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $222.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Friday, June 5th. UBS Group set a $300.00 price objective on Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stephens increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $345.00 price objective (up from $265.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.74.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $358.68 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $139.57 and a 1 year high of $368.80. The firm has a market cap of $292.32 billion, a PE ratio of 294.00, a PEG ratio of 13.32 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $290.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $212.30.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 7.95% and a return on equity of 10.53%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm 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. Analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $5,598,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John P. Key sold 7,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.24, for a total value of $2,094,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $3,490,500. This trade represents a 37.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock valued at $27,174,360. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,415,364,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.0% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 3,101,267 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,929,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,512,533,000 after acquiring an additional 2,659,100 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1,665.1% in the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,761,909 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $442,788,000 after acquiring an additional 2,605,433 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 67.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 6,297,833 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,009,669,000 after acquiring an additional 2,528,299 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.