Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Posted by Brenda Bartman on Oct 16th, 2026

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday. The stock had previously closed at $397.03, but opened at $378.96. Palo Alto Networks shares last traded at $378.9410, with a volume of 2,054,102 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $440.00 price target (up from $410.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $440.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Friday, October 2nd. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $390.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $253.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Palo Alto Networks from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $393.02.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on PANW

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $302.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 726.03, a P/E/G ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $373.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $300.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.28, for a total transaction of $103,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at $1,825,163.56. This trade represents a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total value of $10,769,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 117,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,110,900. This represents a 18.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 15.0% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 410,401 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $65,796,000 after purchasing an additional 53,485 shares during the period. B&D White Capital Company LLC bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $353,000. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $2,159,000. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 43.6% during the first quarter. Granite Islands Private Wealth LLC now owns 15,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares during the period. Finally, Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.6% during the third quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 240,029 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $95,366,000 after purchasing an additional 3,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions designed to help organizations protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, applications and users from cyber threats. Its offerings include next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, endpoint protection and security operations tools.

The company also provides platforms and services for cloud security, threat intelligence, incident response, vulnerability management and the automation of security operations.