New York, Feb 21, 2026, 12:54 (EST) — The session has ended.
- PANW finished Friday at $148.70, slipping 1.5% on the session. Shares have now dropped around 11% across the last five days.
- HSBC lowered its price target to $114, down from $157, and maintained its Reduce rating, MT Newswires said.
- Cybersecurity stocks dropped Friday as Anthropic rolled out a sneak peek of “Claude Code Security,” stirring up new concerns over software spending, according to Investors.com. Investors
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. ended Friday at $148.70, slipping 1.52%. The cybersecurity stock heads into the weekend lower, with U.S. markets now closed.
The retreat sharpens focus on how fast investors are reworking their expectations for Palo Alto following its lowered annual profit outlook tied to acquisition costs—despite the company raising revenue guidance. The key issue: do margins settle once those deal-related pressures ease, or does the squeeze persist?
Wall Street’s updates are coming in fast. HSBC, according to MT Newswires, slashed its price target to $114 from $157 and stuck with its Reduce rating. JPMorgan knocked its target down to $200 from $225, still rating the stock Overweight. New Street also cut its target, now $220 instead of $240, but it’s sticking with Buy.
The broader market closed in the green Friday, yet cybersecurity stocks lagged. Fortinet slipped 2.04% and CrowdStrike tumbled 7.95%, despite gains in the S&P 500 and Dow, according to MarketWatch data.
Sector jitters played a role. Cybersecurity names slipped into the red, according to Seeking Alpha, after Anthropic introduced its “Claude Code Security” add-on to the Claude Code product. The move rattled investors, raising fresh concerns over how quickly AI players might roll out security features that challenge incumbent enterprise offerings. Seeking Alpha
Company news landed, but nothing that would typically jolt the stock in a single session. Aeris announced it’s finished integrating its IoT Watchtower platform with Palo Alto’s Prisma SASE 5G. The move is designed to bring security policy coverage to wireless IoT setups; SASE, or secure access service edge, blends network and security functions in the cloud.
Palo Alto has named Annika Ekdahl as its new head for Sweden, S&P Capital IQ reported, after she previously ran Nordic sales at Informatica.
Palo Alto turned in fiscal Q2 revenue of $2.6 billion, up 15%. Next-Generation Security ARR climbed 33% to $6.3 billion. For its third quarter, the company is guiding for a diluted non-GAAP profit in the 78 to 80 cent range, but trimmed its fiscal 2026 outlook to $3.65-$3.70 a share on the same basis. CEO Nikesh Arora highlighted “continued strength in platformizations.” CFO Dipak Golechha noted this marks a third consecutive quarter with non-GAAP operating margins above 30%. Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto reports its outlook using non-GAAP measures, removing things like share-based comp and costs tied to acquisitions. The ARR figure reflects a subscription run-rate built from active contracts, as outlined in the earnings release filed with the SEC.
The downside risk still hangs over the story: integrating these deals could keep running up costs longer than expected, and margin worries are sticking around past just one quarter. Reuters reported that Palo Alto pointed to steeper integration expenses from its recent acquisitions, and Morningstar’s Malik Ahmed Khan linked the latest hit to profitability “mostly” to those deals. Delivering on cross-selling, he added, remains the key to justifying those costs. Reuters
Markets are shut until Monday, when attention will turn to how the sector handles Friday’s volatility tied to AI names. On their calendars, traders have Feb. 25-26 marked for Palo Alto’s virtual “Symphony 2026” event, centered on its “agentic” security operations center (SOC). The company’s product messaging here could shape sentiment as March approaches. Palo Alto Networks
