On a GAAP basis, the company posted a per share net loss of $0.56 compared with a loss of $1.96 in the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings excluded the negative effects of share-based compensation of $0.76 per share and including other adjustments, partially offset by $0.11 per share in tax adjustments.
The company’s chairman/CEO said:
Our ongoing success is due to our natively integrated and highly automated enterprise security platform that delivers prevention capabilities at every step in the cyber-attack lifecycle. Our customers are benefitting from the leverage gained by our flexible and extensible platform, the network-effect of insights from across our customer base, and our consistent delivery of innovative technology that extends the value of the platform and enhances our customers’ security.
The company forecast fourth fiscal quarter revenue in a range of $252 to $256 million, up 41% to 45% compared with the same period a year ago. Diluted, adjusted EPS is pegged at a range of $0.24 to $0.25. Consensus estimates for the fourth quarter call for EPS of $0.24 on revenues of $247.67 million. For the full fiscal year, EPS is expected to come in at $0.78 on revenues of $880.66 million.
Palo Alto Networks also announced today that it has acquired CirroSecure and expects to have a new subscription-based service for the enterprise security platform in place by the second half of 2015. Terms of the acquisition were not announced.
Investors were apparently looking for a stronger showing from the company even though it beat both earnings and revenue estimates. Fourth-quarter EPS guidance was no more than expected and revenue guidance was higher than analysts expected, but not a lot higher. Then the acquisition didn’t ring any bells with investors either. The CFO said that revenue growth is driven by new customer acquisition which ought perhaps make investors a little happier than they seem to be with today’s report.
The stock closed today at $160.65, and traded down about 0.7% in the after-hours session at $159.50. The 52-week range is $68.03 to $165.09. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $167.00 before today’s results were announced, and the high price target is set at $200.00.
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