Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Given Buy Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $230.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Roth Capital assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $215.00 price target (up previously from $210.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Twenty-eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.86.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of PANW opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $144.15 and a twelve month high of $210.39. The company has a market cap of $121.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 113.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $191.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $186.32.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 18.55%. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.900 EPS. Analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $99,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.00, for a total transaction of $122,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 41,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,452,332. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 669,248 shares of company stock worth $126,423,337. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Transce3nd LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.