Morgan Stanley raised Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) price target to $302 from $255, reiterating an Overweight rating on the stock. The analysts predict that the company will surpass a $100 billion market cap within the next 12 months. This growth is expected to be driven by accelerating share gain from vendor consolidation, an expanding total addressable market (TAM), and improving margins.
The basis for this outlook is the company’s broad platform evolution, which enables the consolidation of security spending across a large installed base. Additionally, the company’s higher mix of recurring Next-Gen SaaS Security revenue and significant margin expansion following a multi-year investment cycle contribute to the positive assessment. The analysts also highlighted the increasing visibility of AI tailwinds for the company.