What if you invested in Palo Alto Networks in 2020?
PANW · Technology · Data through 2026-06-01
If you invested $1,000 in Palo Alto Networks in 2020
The same $1,000 in the S&P 500 would be worth $2,540(+154%)
The S&P 500 returned $2,540 on the same $1,000. Palo Alto Networks beat the market by $6,175.
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Compare Palo Alto Networks to another stock
See how Palo Alto Networks stacks up since 2020, head to head.
What if Palo Alto Networks keeps this up?
Project forward at Palo Alto Networks's 38.9% historical growth rate. See 5-30 year scenarios.
Growth of $1,000
Palo Alto Networks vs. S&P 500 vs. US Dollar, 2020 to present
Year-by-Year Returns
$1,000 invested in Palo Alto Networks starting January 2020
| Year | Price | Value | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $39.13 | $1,000 | - |
| 2021 | $58.46 | $1,494 | +49.4% |
| 2022 | $86.23 | $2,204 | +47.5% |
| 2023 | $79.32 | $2,027 | -8% |
| 2024 | $169.26 | $4,325 | +113.4% |
| 2025 | $184.42 | $4,713 | +9% |
| 2026 | $176.97 | $4,523 | -4% |
What this return means
Putting $1,000 into Palo Alto Networks (PANW) in 2020 returned $8,715. That is a +771.5% gain, a little over 8.7x your money, measured to 2026-06-01.
That is a compound rate of about 38.9% a year, an extreme pace that few holdings sustain for 6.6 years. A plain S&P 500 fund would have turned that $1,000 into about $2,540 instead, leaving Palo Alto Networks ahead by around $6,175. The index compounded at about 15.2% a year over that period.
The year-by-year record shows how bumpy the ride was. The best single year was 2024 at +113.4%, and the worst was 2023 at -8.0%. These figures use split-adjusted closing prices and exclude dividends, taxes, trading fees, and inflation, so a real after-tax result would differ.
Treat this as history rather than advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
What if you invested $100 a month instead?
Most people do not drop a lump sum in on day one. They add a fixed amount every month. Putting $100 into Palo Alto Networks at the close of every month from January 2020 through June 2026 means 78 buys and $7,800 contributed over about 6.5 years.
$100/month, dollar-cost averaged
$30,761
+294.4% on $7,800 in
Same $7,800, all in at the start
$67,977
+771.5% on $7,800 in
Going all in at the start beat spreading the buys out by $37,217. That is the usual result when a stock trends up: each monthly buy pays a higher price than the last, so the average cost climbs. Averaging in also meant an average buy price of $86.47 per share across the whole stretch, so the monthly buyer never had to time a single low. Neither number counts dividends, taxes, or trading costs.
Illustrative fixed $100/month example, not a recommendation. Figures are computed from PANW split-adjusted monthly closes through June 2026. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Palo Alto Networks at different times
See how the start year changes the outcome
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Numbers worth sharing
Occasional data drops when something interesting surfaces. No schedule, just signal.
For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All calculations are based on split-adjusted closing prices from Yahoo Finance and do not account for dividends, taxes, or trading fees. See our methodology and full disclaimer.