Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Price Target Cut by RBC Capital Amid Unconventional Earnings Announcement

RBC Capital's Matthew Hedberg lowered their price target on Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) by 9.7% from $277 to $250 on 2023/08/07. The analyst maintained their Buy rating on the stock.

In connection with their price target cut, Hedberg referenced Palo Alto Network's "extremely unconventional" plan to announce its Q4 and FY 2023 earnings after close on a Friday (2023/08/18). The print will "follow a weak set of results from Fortinet," the analyst added.

Some of Palo Alto Network management's FY 2024 guidance could be below consensus, Hedberg warned investors, because of "hardware FW growth pressure and shorter duration."

Barclays's Saket Kalia also issued an update on PANW on 2023/08/07. That analyst raised their price target by 12.2%, from $245 and maintained their Strong Buy rating on the stock.

100% of top-rated analysts currently rate PANW as a Strong Buy or Buy, no analysts see it as a Hold, and no analysts either recommend or strongly recommend selling the stock.

The consensus forecast among analysts is that PANW's upcoming year will deliver earnings per share (EPS) of $1.13. If the analysts are right, PANW's next yearly EPS will be up by 58.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Since PANW's last quarterly report on 2023/04/30, the stock price is up 15.9%. Year-over-year, the stock is up 26.6%. During that period, PANW is outpacing the S&P 500, which is up 7.9%.

RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg is ranked by WallStreetZen in the top 17% out of 4,293 Wall Street analysts, with an average return of 1.4% and a 45.4% win rate. They specialize in the Industrials, Communication Services, and Technology sectors.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. offers cybersecurity solutions in the U.S. and internationally. Panorama is a security management solution for the control of firewall appliances and software deployed on an end-customer's network or public or private cloud environments. The company also offers subscription services covering threat prevention, malware threat, uniform resource locator filtering, device protection, and firewalls. Palo Alto Networks was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

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