Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW
Weak Cybersecurity sector · The broadest security platform — consolidating network, cloud and AI security under one roof.
🗓 Reports earnings in 43 days (2026-11-18) — calendar context, not a prediction.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) is an established Cybersecurity company, graded Weak on FrontierLab's evidence-based quality rubric (data as of 2026-10-05). Revenue grew 24.5% year-over-year at a 70.4% gross margin. Gross-profits-to-assets is 0.17; Rule of 40 is 30.6. Net share issuance 7.8% YoY (heavy issuance). 3 risk flags are noted below. Analyst mix: 49 buy / 13 hold / 1 sell. Track record: 35% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 63 sessions (95% CI 18–57%, N=20). Median excess vs the S&P was -13%.
These sentences are generated from the day's data by deterministic templates.
Key quality signals
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 24.5% |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 70.4% |
| Gross profits / assets | 0.17 |
| Rule of 40 | 30.6 |
| Net margin | 6.1% |
| Cash runway (months) | — |
| PEG | — |
| Price / sales | 28.6 |
Quality checklist
Each line is one quality test behind the grade — ✓ passed · ~ borderline · ✗ failed. Hover a metric in the tables below for what it means.
- ~ Revenue growth — 24.5% (pass ≥ 20%)
- ✗ Gross profits / assets — 0.17 (pass ≥ 0.33)
- · Rule of 40 — 30.6 (context — graded for software only)
- ~ Gross margin — 70.4% (pass ≥ 72% · Cybersecurity)
- ✓ Cash generation
- ✗ Share dilution — 7.8%
- ✓ Competitive moat — Wide
- ✓ Market size (TAM) — Large
Grade history
Graded Weak since 2026-06-10 — no grade changes recorded yet.
How have Weak-graded names performed?
The forward returns of all Weak-graded names since each grade was recorded — the bucket this name currently sits in, not a forecast of this individual stock.
| Window | Forward record vs the S&P | Median |
|---|---|---|
| ~1 month | 32% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 21 sessions (95% CI 15–54%, N=19). | Median excess vs the S&P was -3%. |
| ~3 months | 35% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 63 sessions (95% CI 18–57%, N=20). | Median excess vs the S&P was -13%. |
| ~6 months | building — 46 more sessions needed | |
How have this name's flags scored?
| Flag | N | Mean excess vs S&P |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy share dilution (>5%/yr) — your slice shrinks. | sample still too small to report (need ≥ 8) | |
| Hyper-expansion — assets up ~106% in a year; aggressive expanders have historically lagged. | sample still too small to report (need ≥ 8) | |
| Parabolic one-day spike (+13%) in the last month — extreme single-day moves tend to mean-revert. | sample still too small to report (need ≥ 8) | |
These per-flag figures are observational — a flag firing is not a randomized assignment, so any edge can reflect what kind of names trip a flag, not the flag itself. Descriptive, not causal.
Scope: these are forward returns vs the S&P among names still covered at each horizon's end, within the curated universe — not a survivorship-clean whole-market backtest. Names later dropped from coverage are counted as attrition (not hidden), and single-session moves beyond ±300% are treated as split/data artifacts and excluded. How this is measured → · Full track record →
How it compares
Coarse same-sector, same-stage context — not a percentile or rank. GP/A is graded on its absolute level, not position.
Fundamentals
| Market cap | $328.64B |
|---|---|
| Stage | Established |
| Share issuance (YoY) | 7.8% · heavy issuance |
| Moat | Wide |
| TAM | LARGE |
| P/E (trailing) | 916.5 |
| EPS (trailing) | $0.44 |
| Burn multiple | — |
| Gross-margin trend (pts) | -3 |
| Cash / assets | 0.06 |
| Accruals (%) | -11.8% |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0 |
| Statements as of | Q4 FY2026 · filed 2026-09-10 |
Momentum context — describes the past, not a signal
Low reached Feb 24, 2026 · high reached Oct 2, 2026 — by daily close.
| Price | $403.24 (as of 2026-10-02) |
|---|---|
| Last session move | — |
| % off 52-wk high | -1.5% |
| RSI (14) | 63 |
| Relative volume | 0.8× |
Risk flags
Positive signals
Insider activity (90 days)
| Cluster buyers | 0 |
|---|---|
| Sellers | 6 |
Insider selling is routine diversification, not a bearish signal.
Analyst mix
| Strong buy | 16 |
|---|---|
| Buy | 33 |
| Hold | 13 |
| Sell | 1 |
| Strong sell | 0 |
Ratings are context, not a price target. "Momentum" = how the mix changed over recent weeks, not a forecast.
AI take — daily, AI-generated
AI leans cautious
Solid growth at 24.5% but weak profitability metrics (GP/A 0.17) and rising dilution signal execution challenges; valuation unclear without PEG, making it hard to justify at current levels.
Generated by an AI model from the day's news — an opinion for context only. Not financial advice, not a recommendation, and not a price target.
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Data as of 2026-10-05 08:19 (end-of-day). How grades are computed →