Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $230.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Tigress Financial initiated coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, September 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $232.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.09.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of PANW opened at $182.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $125.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.76, a P/E/G ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $208.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $197.37. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $144.15 and a 52 week high of $223.61.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 19th. The network technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 17.05% and a net margin of 11.69%.The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.800-3.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 0.930-0.950 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.97, for a total value of $153,979.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,449,674.85. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 846,408 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.06, for a total value of $172,718,016.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 275,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,119,152.78. This represents a 75.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 1,215,130 shares of company stock worth $249,031,488 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Klingman & Associates LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 2.2% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $434,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,742 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. St. Clair Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. St. Clair Advisors LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,233,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 2,467 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $496,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. 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.