Shares of Palo Alto Networks surged Tuesday after the cybersecurity firm reported solid earnings in its fiscal fourth quarter and provided a stronger-than-expected forecast for the fiscal year.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based information security firm said on Monday that its revenue rose 15% to $2.5 billion during the quarter, compared with $2.2 billion in the same quarter in 2024.
The company’s adjusted earnings reached $673 million, or 95 cents per share, compared with $522 million, or 75 cents, during the same quarter in 2024.
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said the earnings results showed that its controversial “platformization” strategy was paying off, with a growing number of companies looking to consolidate their security spending rather than continuing to rely on fragmented solutions.
“While customers are consolidating and simplifying their security stack, in part to optimize costs, the larger benefit comes from their improved security outcomes,” Arora told analysts during a Monday conference call. “This includes faster incident response times, a better user experience, and removing the operational burden of stitching together point products.”
Palo Alto Networks shares were up 4.8%, to $184.65, on Tuesday in late morning trading.
Palo Alto Networks roiled the markets in late 2023 and early 2024 when it began offering deferred payments and other incentives to get customers to consolidate all of their security spending on its platform. The firm even allowed customers to push payments out into future years while their existing vendor contracts expired.
As part of that strategy, Palo Alto Networks also began offering free incident-response services to some of its largest customers. The company warned last year that the moves would affect its revenue, but it said on Monday that fourth-quarter bookings were the best it had seen in two and a half years.
In late July, Palo Alto Networks signed a deal to buy CyberArk, a leading provider of identity security tools, for $25 billion.
The company is forecasting annual revenue for fiscal 2026 of between $10.48 billion and $10.53 billion, a 14% increase from a year ago.
Adjusted earnings are expected to be between $3.75 and $3.85 per share.
