Scotiabank Issues Positive Forecast for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price boosted by Scotiabank from $225.00 to $228.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on PANW. Piper Sandler raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Twenty-eight investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $218.86.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 3.1%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $210.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.06 billion, a PE ratio of 113.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $191.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $186.32.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 18.55%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $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. Sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were 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 owned 41,433 shares in the company, valued at $8,452,332. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Aparna Bawa sold 526 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $99,940.00. Following the sale, the director owned 8,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,640,080. This represents a 5.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over 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

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,016,374 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,100,311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,830 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,174,029 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,093,262,000 after purchasing an additional 169,055 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,427,048,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,324,387,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,631 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 41.9% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,235,406 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,234,650,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,735 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.