Palo Alto Networks is a cyber security company. Firm delivered a very successful Q4 2021 report beating analysts' forecasts. In the pre-market the stock price rose nearly 7%.
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Profit $1.3 billion, adjusted earnings of $1.74 per share. Analysts were expecting $1.28 billion in sales and $1.65 earnings per share.
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Revenue for Q4 2021 increased 32% year-over-year to $1.6 billion.
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Customer payment obligations to the company increased by 36 % year-on-year to $6.3 billion.
The company's forecasts also look very optimistic:
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For Q3 2022, company expects revenue in the region of $1.345 billion to $1.365 billion.
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Earnings around $1.65 to $1.68 per share.
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For the full financial year, Palo Alto Networks forecasts revenue to range from $5.425 billion to $5.475 billion.
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Adjusted earnings per share for 2022 are expected in the region between $7.23 and $7.30 with free cash flow margins increasing between 32% and 33%.
J.P Morgan upgraded company stock rating. Palo Alto Networks also unveiled its new Cortex XSIAM intelligent AI platform designed to enable:
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continuous, rapid detection of security vulnerabilities by analysing alarms, logs and other data from companies' infrastructure
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active management of the entire system by artificial intelligence (machine learning)
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aggregation of threat data which is expected to be delivered from customers.
In addition, the platform is expected to halve the costs generated by legacy SIEM systems. The platform is expected to be widely available later in 2022. The creators of Cortex platform call it "autonomous security platform of the future" and compare it to an autonomous electric car among security systems.
The company's shares should open above $ 505, which could prevent a move lower below the key support zone between $475 and $450. Source: xStation5
