Cloud Stocks: Palo Alto Networks Expands Security Capabilities
According to a recent market report, the global cyber security market size is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2027. The growth is expected to be driven by the SMB segment, which will witness a growth of 15% CAGR. Security player Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) continues to tap into the market through product upgrades and partnerships.
Palo Alto Networks’ Financials
Its fourth quarter revenues grew 28% to $1.2 billion, significantly ahead of the Street’s estimate of $1.174 billion. GAAP net loss was $119.3 million or $1.23 per share compared with a loss of $58.9 million or $0.61 per share a year ago. Non GAAP net income was $1.60 per share. The market was looking for a net income of $1.44 per share.
By segment, Product revenues grew 11.06% to $339.4 million. Subscription and support revenues grew 36.5% to $897.9 million.
Among other metrics, billings improved 34% to $1.9 billion and Deferred revenues grew 32% to $5 billion.
It ended the year with revenues of $339.4 million compared with $305.6 million a year ago. Net loss per share more than doubled from $0.61 per share a year ago to $1.23 per share.
For the first quarter of fiscal 2022, Palo Alto expects revenues of $1.29-$1.31 billion with an EPS of $1.55-$1.58. For the year, Palo Alto expects revenues between $6.60-$6.65 billion and an EPS of $7.15-$7.25. The market was looking for revenues of $1.22 billion for the quarter with EPS of $1.43 and revenues of $4.26 billion for the year with an EPS of $5.99.
Palo Alto Network’s Growth Focus
Palo Alto recently announced Cortex XDR 3.0, a new solution that increases its extended detection and response (XDR) capability to both cloud and identity-based threats, providing organizations with the holistic analytics necessary to protect against sophisticated cyber attacks. The new release now gives security operations center (SOC) teams broader protections across the attack surface. By extending detection, monitoring, and investigation into cloud environments, as well as detecting malicious user activities and insider threats through an analysis of identity data, teams are able to benefit from security analytics across endpoint, network, cloud, and identity for organization wise detection and response.
It also announced a partnership with Deloitte that will allow both companies to create integrated, end-to-end zero Trust and multi-cloud cyber security solutions to both their enterprise and government customers. It will combine Deloitte’s cyber risk consulting services with Palo Alto’s platform security capabilities, delivering solutions to assist customers in simplifying complex security infrastructure while simultaneously increasing speed and agility.
Palo Alto has been getting very positive reviews in the market. A recent report by Forrester positioned it as a leader in its New Wave Zero Trust Network Access report. Palo Alto was among the 15 vendors that Forrester evaluated for the report and rated Palo Alto’s Prisma Access very positively, recognizing it for its capability to be self-hosted, SaaS, and hybrid offerings.
Palo Alto’s stock is trading at $461.04 with a market capitalization of $44.9 billion. It was trading at a 52-week high of $464.90 in August and a 52-week low of $219.34 in October last year.
Disclosure: All investors should make their own assessments based on their own research, informed interpretations and risk appetite. This article expresses my own opinions based on my own ...
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