Analysts Offer Predictions for PANW Q1 Earnings

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) – Stock analysts at KeyCorp issued their Q1 2026 earnings per share estimates for shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, December 19th. KeyCorp analyst E. Heath forecasts that the network technology company will post earnings of $0.53 per share for the quarter. KeyCorp has a “Overweight” rating and a $217.50 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Palo Alto Networks’ current full-year earnings is $3.49 per share. KeyCorp also issued estimates for Palo Alto Networks’ Q2 2026 earnings at $0.54 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $0.47 EPS and Q4 2026 earnings at $0.62 EPS.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays decreased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.40.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of PANW stock opened at $188.22 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $123.51 billion, a PE ratio of 24.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $207.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.99.

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

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,656,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,609,486,000 after acquiring an additional 220,900 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,243,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,099,564,000 after purchasing an additional 255,060 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 5.4% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,233,918 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $757,321,000 after acquiring an additional 114,742 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. This trade represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,237,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This represents a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 571,172 shares of company stock valued at $107,074,352. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

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.