Stifel analyst Gur Talpaz said Palo Alto Networks missed Q1 due to revenue and billings estimates due to an elongated sales cycle that resulted in some larger deals slipping into Q2. The analyst sees a relatively healthy enterprise security spending environment but with additional deal scrutiny and higher levels of discounting among Palo Alto's primary competitors. However, Talpaz is encouraged by improving traction of the company's Traps and VM-Series solutions and views Q1 results as a hiccup and said his long-term Buy thesis is intact.

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.