Palo Alto Earnings, Revenue Top Estimates On Cloud Platform Growth

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) late Monday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street targets. Palo Alto stock rose as the cybersecurity firm’s guidance also came in above expectations.

↑ X NOW PLAYING Can This Cybersecurity Stock Benefit From CrowdStrike Debacle? Upcoming Earnings May Tell.

Palo Alto reported fiscal Q4 financial results after the market close on Monday. On the stock market today, Palo Alto stock rose 3.2% to near 355 in extended trading.

In the quarter ended July 30, Palo Alto earnings rose 5% to $1.51 per share on an adjusted basis. Further, revenue climbed 12% to $2.2 billion, including acquisitions.

Analysts expected earnings of $1.41 a share on sales of $2.16 billion.

Palo Alto Stock: New Financial Metric

Palo Alto has de-emphasized billings guidance, a sales growth metric, and plans to provide an outlook for remaining performance obligations instead. RPO is the total value of contracted revenue that a company has not yet recognized as revenue on its financial statements.

In fiscal Q4, RPO rose 20% to $12.7 billion, topping estimates of $10.6 billion.

For the current quarter ending in October, the cybersecurity firm predicted adjusted profit of $1.48 per share, topping expectations of $1.42. Further, Palo Alto forecast revenue in a range of $2.10 billion to $2.13 billion, just above estimates of $2.1 billion.

Also, the company announced a $500 million buyback of its own shares.

Meanwhile, sales for firewall network appliances have slowed. Firewall appliances protect computer networks by blocking online intrusions and monitoring web-based apps.

However, Palo Alto has built a broad cloud-based security platform through acquisitions. Cloud software revenue is becoming a larger part of overall sales.

Heading into the Palo Alto earnings report, the cybersecurity stock had climbed 13% in 2024.

Palo Alto stock holds an IBD Composite Rating of 89 out of 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup.

Meanwhile, Palo Alto is among AI stocks to watch.

Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.

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