What to Expect From Palo Alto Networks Earnings

By Chris Lange Published Sep 9, 8:35AM EDT

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Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.25 in earnings per share (EPS) on $256.26 million in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, the company posted EPS of $0.11 and $178.23 million in revenue.

This data security leader is thrown around constantly as being the best in class. It has a market cap of almost $14 billion now. The 2014 revenue was only $598 million, and its operating income was a loss of $215 million, while it reported operating EPS of $0.40. The consensus estimates for the 2015 fiscal year call for a revenue of $900.59 million and an operating EPS of $0.83.

At the same time, this company has been a momentum traders’ dream over the past two years. Palo Alto is helping to lead a new era in cybersecurity by protecting thousands of enterprise, government and service provider networks from cyber-threats, and it boasted a staggering year-over-year billing growth. Unlike fragmented legacy products, its security platform safely enables business operations and delivers protection based on what matters most in today’s dynamic computing environments: applications, users and content.

The Palo Alto Networks security platform has new features that were recently introduced that help security professionals overcome the distractions and time spent on problems caused by the overwhelming volume of alerts and manual processes associated with operating many discrete security products and instead expand breach-prevention capabilities and boost operational efficiency.

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A few analysts weighed in on Palo Alto ahead of its earnings:

Piper Jaffray reiterated a Buy rating with a $185 price target.
Nomura reiterated a Buy rating with a $185 price target.
Wells Fargo reiterated an Outperform rating.
William Blair reiterated an Outperform rating.
Oppenheimer reiterated a Buy rating with a $180 price target.
JMP Securities reiterated a Buy rating with a $210 price target.

Shares of Palo Alto closed Tuesday up 2.5%, at $166.47 in its 52-week trading range of $87.83 to $200.55. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $193.66.

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.