Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Releases Q2 Earnings Guidance

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.54-1.56 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.22-2.25 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.23 billion. Palo Alto Networks also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 6.260-6.390 EPS.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $383.36 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $364.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $339.39. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $260.09 and a one year high of $408.53. The firm has a market cap of $124.82 billion, a PE ratio of 49.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks are going to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on PANW shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $416.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities raised their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $370.00 price target (up previously from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Two investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $402.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total value of $3,484,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,983,359.33. The trade was a 24.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, 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 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is 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.