Capital One Financial Upgrades Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) to “Overweight”

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) was upgraded by research analysts at Capital One Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $421.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Capital One Financial‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 17.37% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on PANW. Mizuho raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stephens upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $180.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. HSBC raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $114.00 to $207.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane boosted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $327.74.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $358.68 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $290.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $212.30. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $139.57 and a one year high of $368.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $292.32 billion, a PE ratio of 294.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.14 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 2nd. The network technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.06. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.53% and a net margin of 7.95%.The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.37 EPS. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. On average, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 62,904 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.65, for a total value of $16,270,119.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 235,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,037,002.95. This represents a 21.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.08, for a total transaction of $313,588.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 81,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,272,790.88. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 101,239 shares of company stock worth $27,174,360 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 147.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,761 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 4,031 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 169.1% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $948,000 after acquiring an additional 3,275 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 66.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,484 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $713,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 11,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 560 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 4,398 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $900,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.