Cantor Sees Long-Term Upside for Palo Alto Networks (PANW) on AI-Era Security

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is one of the AI Stocks in the Spotlight for Investors. On December 17, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Jonathan Ruykhaver reiterated an “Overweight” rating on the stock following a F1Q26 beat., highlighting the company’s quantum and AI strategies.

Palo Alto reported better-than-expected performance across all metrics, driven by platform consolidation momentum and booming demand for AI-era security architectures.

The company raised its long-term NGS ARR target to $20B by FY30, citing traction across SASE, Cortex, and AIRS; along with expanding total addressable market as the company pushes further into identity, observability, and quantum readiness.

Cantor also discussed PANW’s acquisition of Chronosphere in their investor note, which is a next-generation observability platform built to scale with AI workloads. The acquisition will further enable Palo Alto to become a “full stack security and observability leader.”

“We maintain a constructive long-term view as Palo Alto positions ahead of major platform shifts in AI, identity, and quantum security.”

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is a leader in AI-powered cybersecurity.

While we acknowledge the risk and potential of PANW as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PANW and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None.