Capital One Financial Forecasts PANW FY2026 Earnings

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) – Research analysts at Capital One Financial boosted their FY2026 earnings per share estimates for shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, December 17th. Capital One Financial analyst C. Murphy now expects that the network technology company will post earnings per share of $2.21 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $2.21. The consensus estimate for Palo Alto Networks’ current full-year earnings is $3.49 per share.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $222.50 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $210.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas started coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, thirty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.40.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of PANW stock opened at $186.78 on Friday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $130.04 and a 12-month high of $207.24. The company has a market cap of $122.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $191.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Tradewinds LLC. increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $791,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% during the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $312,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% during the third quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,379,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $357,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,237,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 571,172 shares of company stock valued at $107,074,352 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.