Palo Alto Networks Thrashes Earnings Despite Markets Falling

By Chris Lange Updated Apr 28, 3:22AM EDT · Published Sep 9, 4:30PM EDT

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Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE: PANW) reported its fiscal fourth quarter financial results after the markets closed on Wednesday. The company had $0.28 in earnings per share (EPS) on $283.9 million in revenue compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that call for $0.25 in EPS on $256.26 million in revenue. The same period from the previous year had $0.11 in EPS on $178.23 million in revenue.

Fiscal fourth quarter billings grew 69% year over year to $393.6 million while total revenue grew 59% year over year to its record level.

The company gave guidance for the fiscal first quarter: Palo Alto expects EPS in the range of $0.31 to $0.32 and revenues in the range of $280 million to $284 million.

Recently, Palo Alto hosted over 500 of its channel partners at its 2016 Sales Kickoff. The company continued its investment in channel relationships by hosting these channel partners who participated side-by-side with sales representatives in the annual sales training event in early August.

Mark McLaughlin, President and CEO of Palo Alto, commented on earnings:

We are very pleased with our results for both the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2015. During the year we grew our customer base to over 26,000 customers, expanded our technology partnerships and distribution relationships, enhanced our next-generation security platform with new offerings and achieved $928.1 million in revenue, an increase of 55 percent year-over-year. We are significantly outgrowing the market and rapidly taking share. Once again, our performance demonstrates that our natively integrated and automated security platform is highly differentiated, and our focus on innovation continues to increase our lead over the competition.

On the books, the company had $789.0 million in cash, equivalents, and short term securities compared to $772.5 million in the same period from the previous year.

Steffan Tomlinson, CFO, added:

We delivered strong fourth quarter and fiscal year 2015 results with accelerating revenue growth and expanding operating and cash flow margins. In the fourth quarter, our land and expand sales model once again drove substantial growth in billings, revenue and deferred revenue, which all reached new records. We generated $111.3 million in cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter and ended fiscal year 2015 with $1.3 billion of cash, cash equivalents and investments.

Shares of Palo Alto closed Wednesday down 0.8% at $165.17 on its 52-week trading range of $87.83 to $200.55. Following the release of the earnings report, shares were up 5% at $173.48 in the after-hours trading session. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $193.66.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.