Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) — Company Research

Last Updated: 22 May 2026

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) is the world's largest pure-play cybersecurity company, built around three platform pillars — Strata (network security and next-gen firewalls), Prisma (cloud security and SASE) and Cortex (AI-driven security operations) — now joined by Idira, the identity-security platform created from the $25 bn CyberArk acquisition that closed on 11 February 2026. Fiscal 2025 (year ended 31 July 2025) revenue grew 15% to $9.22 bn, Next-Generation Security ARR rose 32% to $5.6 bn, and the company generated $3.47 bn of free cash flow (a ~38% margin). Momentum has continued into fiscal 2026: Q2 FY26 (ended 31 January 2026) revenue grew 15% to $2.6 bn, NGS ARR jumped 33% to $6.3 bn and remaining performance obligation reached $16.0 bn. CEO Nikesh Arora is pursuing a "platformization" strategy — persuading customers to consolidate dozens of point products onto Palo Alto's platforms — and made a rare open-market purchase of ~$10 m of stock in March 2026. The next major catalyst is the fiscal third-quarter 2026 earnings release on 2 June 2026, the first full quarter to include CyberArk. For live pricing see our live charts, upcoming releases on the economic calendar, and discussion on the ChartsView forum.

1. Company Snapshot

Company	Palo Alto Networks, Inc.
Ticker	NASDAQ: PANW (Nasdaq-100, S&P 500; secondary TASE listing as CYBR)
Sector / Industry	Technology / Cybersecurity Software
HQ	Santa Clara, California
Chairman & CEO	Nikesh Arora (since June 2018)
Founder & CTO	Nir Zuk (company founded 2005)
CFO	Dipak Golechha
Founded / IPO	2005 / IPO July 2012 (NYSE, later moved to Nasdaq)
Employees	16,068 (as of 31 July 2025, FY2025 10-K)
Customers	More than 70,000 organisations worldwide
Fiscal year end	31 July (FY2025 ended 31 July 2025)
Stock splits	3-for-1 (September 2022); 2-for-1 (16 December 2024)
Share price (21 May 2026)	$243.73
52-week range	$139.57 — $248.85
Market cap (21 May 2026)	~$198 bn (~811 m shares post-CyberArk × $243.73)
Enterprise value	~$190 bn (net cash; see Section 6)
FY2025 revenue	$9.22 bn (+15% YoY)
FY2025 GAAP net income	$1,133.9 m ($1.60 diluted EPS)
FY2025 NGS ARR / RPO	$5.6 bn (+32%) / $15.8 bn (+24%)
FY2025 free cash flow	$3.47 bn (~38% margin)
Dividend	None — Palo Alto Networks has never paid a dividend
Long-term debt	Nil at 31 July 2025 (convertible notes fully retired); financing added for CyberArk in FY2026
Website	paloaltonetworks.com / investors.paloaltonetworks.com

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case

• Platformization is compounding: NGS ARR reached $6.3 bn (+33%) at Q2 FY26 with RPO of $16.0 bn (+23%), evidence that customers are consolidating onto Strata, Prisma and Cortex rather than buying point products.
• CyberArk adds a fourth pillar: the $25 bn deal (closed 11 February 2026) makes Palo Alto a leader in identity security — the fastest-growing attack surface in the AI-agent era — and is being rebranded and integrated as Idira.
• Elite cash generation: FY2025 free cash flow was $3.47 bn at a ~38% margin, funding R&D, buybacks and M&A without reliance on debt; management guides a ~37% adjusted FCF margin for FY2026.
• Balance-sheet strength: the company entered FY2026 debt-free after retiring its convertible notes, with $8.5 bn of cash and investments, giving firepower for the CyberArk integration and further M&A.
• Founder/CEO conviction: CEO Nikesh Arora made a rare discretionary open-market purchase of ~68,085 shares (~$10 m) in March 2026, a signal management views the post-correction price as attractive.

Bear Case

• Integration and dilution risk: CyberArk is the largest deal in cybersecurity history; it added ~108 m new shares and meaningful goodwill, and integrating identity into the platform while preserving CyberArk's standalone momentum is non-trivial.
• Decelerating headline revenue: total revenue growth has slowed from 25% (FY2023) to 15% (FY2025) as the firewall hardware cycle matures; the bull thesis now rests on NGS ARR rather than reported revenue.
• Heavy stock-based compensation: FY2025 SBC was ~$1.39 bn, which depresses GAAP profitability and means non-GAAP and GAAP results diverge sharply.
• Premium valuation: at ~57× trailing free cash flow and ~64× forward non-GAAP earnings, the stock prices in continued execution and leaves limited room for a stumble.
• Intensifying competition: Microsoft (bundling), CrowdStrike (endpoint/SecOps), Zscaler (SSE) and Fortinet (firewalls) all contest different parts of Palo Alto's platform, pressuring pricing and consolidation deals.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Palo Alto Networks sells cybersecurity to enterprises and governments. Historically it was the leader in next-generation firewalls; over the last decade it has reorganised the business around three software platforms plus, from 2026, identity. Revenue is reported in two lines — Product (hardware and software firewalls) and Subscription & support (recurring security subscriptions and maintenance) — with subscriptions and support now more than 80% of the total.

Segment	% of FY2025 revenue	What it is
Subscription & support	80.5% ($7,419.6 m)	Recurring, cloud-delivered security subscriptions across Strata, Prisma and Cortex, plus support and maintenance — the engine of NGS ARR
Product	19.5% ($1,801.9 m)	Physical and virtual next-generation firewalls (PA-Series appliances, VM-Series, CN-Series for containers)

By platform, Strata is the network-security franchise (hardware and software firewalls, SASE foundations); Prisma covers cloud-native application security (Prisma Cloud) and secure access (Prisma Access / SASE); Cortex is the AI-driven security-operations suite (XSIAM, XDR, XSOAR); and Idira — the rebranded CyberArk — brings privileged access management and machine/AI-agent identity security. Next-Generation Security ARR ($6.3 bn at Q2 FY26) is the metric management uses to track the recurring software business.

4. The Business Model

How it makes money: the model has shifted decisively from selling firewall boxes to selling multi-year, recurring software subscriptions. Customers increasingly buy whole platforms under "platformization" deals, which lock in larger, longer commitments and lift Next-Generation Security ARR and remaining performance obligation (RPO of $16.0 bn at Q2 FY26 represents revenue contracted but not yet recognised).

Unit economics: FY2025 gross profit was $6.77 bn, a 73.4% gross margin, reflecting the mix shift toward high-margin software. GAAP operating margin was 13.5% ($1,242.9 m operating income) but non-GAAP operating margin was roughly 28%, with the gap driven mainly by stock-based compensation and acquisition-related charges.

The moat: Palo Alto's advantage is breadth and consolidation — once a customer standardises on its platforms, switching costs and operational integration make displacement difficult. Scale funds the largest R&D budget in the sector and a steady acquisition cadence (CyberArk, plus prior deals such as QRadar SaaS assets, Talon and Dig). Free cash flow of $3.47 bn in FY2025 self-funds this flywheel.

5. Financial Health

Four-year fiscal trend (years ended 31 July). Per-share figures for FY2022 and FY2023 are adjusted for the 2-for-1 split effective 16 December 2024 (and reflect the earlier 3-for-1 September 2022 split as restated); FY2024 and FY2025 are on the current share basis.

Fiscal year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Total debt (YE)
FY2022	5,501.5	+29.3%	$(0.45)	$1.26	None	$3,676.8 m
FY2023	6,892.7	+25.3%	$0.64	$2.22	None	$1,991.5 m
FY2024	8,027.5	+16.5%	$3.64	$2.84	None	$963.9 m
FY2025	9,221.5	+14.9%	$1.60	$3.34	None	Nil ($0)

FY2024 GAAP EPS was inflated by a ~$1.6 bn one-off deferred-tax benefit (release of a valuation allowance); FY2025 GAAP EPS normalised lower despite higher revenue and operating income. "Total debt" is the year-end net carrying value of convertible senior notes, which were fully retired by 31 July 2025.

Last six quarters plus the FY2025 total — revenue, adjusted (non-GAAP) EPS and GAAP EPS (most recent first):

Quarter	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 FY2026 (31 Jan 2026)	$2.6 bn (+15%)	$1.03	$0.61
Q1 FY2026 (31 Oct 2025)	$2.5 bn (+16%)	$0.93	$0.47
Q4 FY2025 (31 Jul 2025)	$2,536.3 m (+16%)	$0.95	$0.36
Q3 FY2025 (30 Apr 2025)	$2,289.3 m (+15%)	$0.80	$0.37
Q2 FY2025 (31 Jan 2025)	$2,257.1 m (+14%)	$0.81	$0.38
Q1 FY2025 (31 Oct 2024)	$2,138.8 m (+14%)	$0.78	$0.49
FY2025 total	$9,221.5 m (+15%)	$3.34	$1.60

Cash flow (FY2025): net cash from operations was $3,716.0 m and capital expenditure was $246.2 m, giving free cash flow of $3,469.8 m. Depreciation and amortisation was $343.4 m and stock-based compensation was $1,386.4 m.

Balance sheet (31 July 2025): cash and equivalents $2,268.6 m, short-term investments $634.6 m and long-term investments $5,555.6 m — roughly $8.46 bn of cash and investments — against zero debt after the convertible notes were retired. The CyberArk acquisition (closed 11 February 2026) was funded mainly with stock plus ~$2.2 bn of cash; the post-deal balance sheet will be reported with Q3 FY2026 on 2 June 2026.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Raw metrics, May 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value (as of 21 May 2026)
Share price	$243.73
Market cap	~$198 bn (~811 m shares post-CyberArk × $243.73)
Enterprise value	~$190 bn (market cap ~$198 bn + total debt ~$0 − cash & investments ~$8.46 bn per FY2025 balance sheet; CyberArk close on 11 Feb 2026 consumed ~$2.2 bn cash, lifting EV toward ~$192 bn)
52-week high	$248.85
52-week low	$139.57
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~135× ($243.73 / ~$1.81 trailing-twelve-month GAAP diluted EPS)
P/E (forward)	~64× ($243.73 / FY2026 non-GAAP EPS guidance ~$3.80)
P/S (TTM)	~20× (market cap ~$198 bn / ~$9.9 bn TTM revenue)
P/FCF	~57× (market cap ~$198 bn / FY2025 FCF $3.47 bn; FCF = operating CF $3.72 bn − capex $246.2 m)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~120× on GAAP (EV ~$190 bn / GAAP EBITDA ~$1.59 bn = operating income $1,242.9 m + D&A $343.4 m); ~64× on a stock-based-comp-adjusted basis (adj. EBITDA ~$2.97 bn). GAAP EBITDA is depressed by ~$1.39 bn of recurring SBC, not a one-off.
Short interest (% of float)	~3.1% (≈25 m shares, recent NASDAQ settlement); ~6.65% per MarketBeat (Jan 2026 settlement)
Days to cover	~10.6 (MarketBeat)
Dividend yield	0% (no dividend)

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

The near-term roadmap is dominated by the CyberArk integration. On 19 May 2026 Palo Alto launched Idira — the rebranded CyberArk identity platform — integrating it with Prisma AIRS 3.0 so that identity controls can be applied directly inside AI-security workflows, while Strata and Cortex receive CyberArk capabilities for verifying AI-agent identities and managing privileged access. Management has teased Cortex AgentiX, a new agentic-SecOps product line expected in late 2026 that will natively embed CyberArk vaulting to secure agent-to-agent communications. The broader thesis is that the explosion of AI agents creates millions of new non-human identities to secure, and that Palo Alto's combined network + cloud + SecOps + identity stack is uniquely positioned to address it. Beyond CyberArk, the company continues to push Cortex XSIAM (its AI-driven SOC platform), Prisma SASE, and platformization deals that bundle the portfolio into single multi-year contracts. FY2026 guidance calls for revenue of roughly $10.5 bn (organic, set before CyberArk closed) and a ~37% adjusted free-cash-flow margin.

8. Competitive Landscape

Palo Alto competes across several adjacent markets rather than a single one. In network security and SASE its main rivals are Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point and Zscaler; in cloud and security operations it overlaps with CrowdStrike, Microsoft and Wiz (now part of Google Cloud); and in identity, the CyberArk acquisition puts it against Okta and Microsoft Entra. Gartner has repeatedly named Palo Alto a Leader across network firewalls, SASE and SSE.

Peer	Market cap (May 2026)	Key 2025 metric
Cisco (CSCO)	~$466 bn	Networking giant; security bolstered by 2024 Splunk acquisition; ~$56 bn revenue
CrowdStrike (CRWD)	~$113 bn	FY2026 revenue $4.81 bn (+22%); #1 in endpoint protection
Fortinet (FTNT)	~$92.6 bn	Firewalls and FortiSASE; TTM revenue ~$6.5 bn
Cloudflare (NET)	~$89 bn	2025 revenue ~$1.9 bn; Zero Trust / SASE challenger
Zscaler (ZS)	~$27.5 bn	FY2025 revenue $2.67 bn (+23%); SSE / Zero Trust leader
Check Point (CHKP)	~$13 bn	TTM revenue ~$2.75 bn; firewalls and Infinity platform

9. Leadership and Ownership

Executive leadership:

• Nikesh Arora — Chairman & CEO since June 2018 (previously SoftBank President and a senior Google executive); architect of the platformization and M&A strategy.
• Nir Zuk — founder and CTO; created the next-generation firewall category and remains the technical visionary.
• Dipak Golechha — Chief Financial Officer; oversaw the financial transformation toward recurring revenue and free cash flow.

Ownership: Palo Alto is overwhelmingly institutionally owned (roughly 80%+ of the float), with Vanguard, BlackRock and other large index and active managers among the top holders. Insiders own a small percentage.

Recent insider Form 4 transactions:

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Nikesh Arora (CEO)	27 Mar 2026	Buy (open market)	68,085	~$146.87–$147.48	~$10 m	Discretionary (not 10b5-1)
Nikesh Arora (CEO)	23 Sep 2025	Sell	947,903	~$202.28–$208.49	~$193 m	Rule 10b5-1 plan

The March 2026 open-market purchase is notable: discretionary buying by a large-cap CEO is rare and followed the stock's pullback toward the $140s. The September 2025 sale was executed under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Integration risk (Operational): absorbing CyberArk — the largest acquisition in cybersecurity history — while retaining its talent, customers and growth is a significant execution challenge.
• Dilution and goodwill (Financial): the deal added ~108 m shares and large intangibles; if synergies disappoint, returns on the $25 bn outlay could lag.
• Revenue deceleration (Operational): reported revenue growth has slowed to ~15%; a faster-than-expected slowdown in NGS ARR or platformization deals would undermine the multiple.
• Competition and bundling (Competitive): Microsoft's bundling of security into M365, plus aggressive moves by CrowdStrike, Zscaler and Fortinet, pressure pricing and consolidation wins.
• Valuation sensitivity (Market): at ~57× FCF and ~64× forward earnings, any guidance miss can trigger sharp multiple compression, as the ~5% post-earnings drop in February 2026 illustrated.
• Macro and IT-budget cyclicality (Macro): enterprise security spend, while resilient, is not immune to economic slowdowns that lengthen sales cycles for large platform deals.

11. Recent Developments

• 11 Feb 2026 — CyberArk acquisition closed. Palo Alto completed its ~$25 bn purchase of CyberArk ($45.00 cash plus 2.2005 PANW shares per CyberArk share), the largest deal in cybersecurity history, and took a secondary listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker CYBR.
• 17 Feb 2026 — Q2 FY2026 results. Revenue grew 15% to $2.6 bn, NGS ARR rose 33% to $6.3 bn, RPO grew 23% to $16.0 bn and non-GAAP EPS was $1.03; shares fell ~5% as guidance underwhelmed some investors.
• 27 Mar 2026 — CEO buys stock. Nikesh Arora made a rare discretionary open-market purchase of 68,085 shares (~$10 m).
• 19 May 2026 — Idira launched. Palo Alto unveiled Idira, the rebranded CyberArk identity platform, integrated with Prisma AIRS 3.0, Strata and Cortex for AI-agent identity security.
• May 2026 — Cortex AgentiX teased. The company previewed Cortex AgentiX, a new agentic security-operations product line expected in late 2026 that embeds CyberArk vaulting.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 2 Jun 2026 — Fiscal third-quarter 2026 earnings (quarter ended 30 April 2026); first full quarter to consolidate CyberArk.
• Expected mid-Aug 2026 — Fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results, with initial FY2027 guidance.
• Expected Dec 2026 — Annual meeting of stockholders.
• Expected 2026 — CyberArk / Idira integration milestones and the planned Cortex AgentiX launch (late 2026).

---

Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future resul