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

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target increased by Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $216.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Northland Securities dropped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $177.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. KeyCorp lowered Palo Alto Networks from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $220.00 target price on Palo Alto Networks and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.68.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $190.52 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $188.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.96. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $144.15 and a 1-year high of $210.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.70, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.98.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 18th. The network technology company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 12.30%.The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.80, for a total transaction of $17,280,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,143,516 shares in the company, valued at $543,199,564.80. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.85, for a total value of $1,009,250.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 101,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,414,099.75. This represents a 4.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 448,648 shares of company stock worth $83,548,499 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 6,400.0% during 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 during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.