Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Falls 7.6% – What’s Next?

Posted by Stanley Muller on Oct 16th, 2026

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report) shares traded down 7.6% during trading on Friday. The company traded as low as $339.55 and last traded at $342.00. 8,748,244 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 8,188,638 shares. The stock had previously closed at $370.27.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PANW. Scotiabank cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. New Street Research set a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Citizens Jmp boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $320.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $326.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $393.02.

View Our Latest Report on PANW

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 7.6%

The company has a market cap of $279.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 670.60, a P/E/G ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company’s 50-day moving average is $373.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $300.73.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 2.67%. The company’s revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. 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, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Aparna Bawa sold 1,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.61, for a total value of $373,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $2,031,317.57. The trade was a 15.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total transaction of $336,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 72,484 shares in the company, valued at $27,085,821.12. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 54,210 shares of company stock worth $20,823,029 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter worth $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,979,497 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,610,748,000 after buying an additional 1,493,179 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,734,973,000 after acquiring an additional 205,123 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 8.7% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,778,963 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,993,802,000 after acquiring an additional 706,003 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,466,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,036,648,000 after purchasing an additional 273,103 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.