Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski conducted an end-of-quarter security reseller survey, collecting feedback from 20 global resellers/distributors. Trends for Palo Alto Networks (PANW) "remained strong," Nowinski tells investors in a research note. He points out that nearly half of all resellers said the move to the cloud is a positive growth driver for Palo Alto. While most trends were positive, approximately 24% of resellers said Palo Alto has created some channel conflict with its go-to-market strategy, adds Nowinski. The analyst also collected feedback on Zscaler (ZS) and Okta (OKTA), "both of which were positive, with no resellers below plan."

KeyBanc lowered the firm's price target on Palo Alto Networks to $355 from $380 on lower peer multiples, while keeping an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm says that at some point, the case for optimism needs to be backed up by some optimistic data, and its 1Q24 VAR Survey did not deliver it. IT budgets are still in hiding at this point, with just 50% of KeyBanc's respondents meeting or exceeding their goal in the Q1, the lowest quarterly reading since the heart of the pandemic, and sentiment from the follow-up calls with some individuals also has down ticked. The firm's Q4 2023 VAR survey was iffy, the outlook in 2024 from its CIO survey in January was also not great, its SMB survey was worse than expected, and now 2024 is off to a difficult start - "let's just call a trend a trend," KeyBanc adds.