Argus Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Posted by Stanley Muller on Sep 3rd, 2026

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Argus in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $425.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Argus’ price target points to a potential upside of 31.51% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Arete Research lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $185.00 to $433.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $370.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday. Scotiabank lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “sector outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $300.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Forty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.67.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on PANW

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ PANW opened at $323.17 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $139.57 and a fifty-two week high of $398.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $348.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.11. The stock has a market cap of $263.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 640.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.06 and a beta of 0.91.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 10.21% and a net margin of 2.67%.The business’s revenue was up 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $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. On average, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, Director James J. Goetz sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.90, for a total transaction of $5,598,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,598,000. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.56, for a total transaction of $1,447,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 145,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,058,590. This trade represents a 3.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 37,735 shares of company stock worth $10,814,266 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 35,252.4% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 417,760,413 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $142,464,656,000 after acquiring an additional 416,578,710 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at $25,833,462,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,331,705 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,587,100,000 after acquiring an additional 594,789 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,681,876 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,734,973,000 after purchasing an additional 205,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,989,257 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,934,935,000 after purchasing an additional 540,756 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Key Palo Alto Networks News

Here are the key news stories impacting Palo Alto Networks this week:

Positive Sentiment: Quarterly results exceeded expectations. Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue rose 34.5% year over year to $3.41 billion, surpassing the $3.35 billion consensus estimate, while adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share exceeded expectations of $0.98. Palo Alto Networks Fiscal Fourth-Quarter Results
Positive Sentiment: Next-generation security demand remains strong. Next-generation security annual recurring revenue increased 63% to $9.1 billion, including nearly $1 billion of net new ARR, as customers increase spending to protect AI workloads and respond to faster-moving cyber threats. Palo Alto CEO on AI Cybersecurity Infrastructure
Positive Sentiment: Fiscal 2027 guidance was above consensus. Palo Alto Networks projected revenue of $14.1 billion to $14.2 billion, representing roughly 23% to 24% growth, while first-quarter revenue guidance also topped estimates. Multiple firms, including RBC, Needham, Cantor Fitzgerald, Susquehanna, Rosenblatt, BTIG, and Citi, raised price targets or reaffirmed positive ratings.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.