Palo Alto Networks Stock Slips Ahead Of Earnings, But Retail’s Extremely Bullish

Shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc. ($PANW) were slightly down on Wednesday ahead of the company’s first-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings, but retail sentiment stayed strong.

Wall Street analysts expect Palo Alto Networks to report earnings per Share (EPS) of $1.48 on revenue of $2.12 billion, according to Stocktwits data. The company has beaten its earnings estimates in all four quarters in the past year.

For its fiscal fourth quarter 2024, its revenues grew 12% year-over-year to $2.2 billion; Its GAAP net income was $357.7 million, or $1.01 per diluted share.

"We finished off the year with strong execution on our platformization strategy in Q4," Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, said at the time of its last earnings. "As we look forward to fiscal year 2025 and beyond, we are focused on scaling our next-generation Security business through continued innovation and execution."

Retail sentiment on the stock climbed into ‘extremely bullish’ (82/100) levels from ‘bullish’ (72/100) a day ago. Message volumes jumped to ‘extremely high’ levels.

PANW sentiment and message volumes on Nov 20 as of 2:20 pm ET| Source: Stocktwits

Wedbush Securities has an ‘Outperform’ rating for the company and a $400 price target, Seeking Alpha reported.

"We have seen stronger deal flow and believe PANW is getting their sea legs on the platform strategy now front and center for cybersecurity customer deployments," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives was quoted as saying in a note to clients. 

"While not expecting major fireworks on Wednesday after the bell with FY1Q25 earnings, we view the seeds of growth are now in place for a very important FY25."

Earlier this week, Truist analyst Joel Fishbein also improved the firm’s price target on the company to $425 from $400 while keeping a “Buy” rating on the shares. According to the firm, going by Palo Alto’s customer and partner conversions, the company is “performing well, driven by strong demand for vendor consolidation.”

Palo Alto stock is up 34% year-to-date.