Palo Alto Jumps on Strong Profit Outlook, Boosted Buyback

(Bloomberg) -- Palo Alto Networks Inc. rose after issuing a quarterly profit outlook that beat Wall Street’s expectations and boosting its share buyback program. 

Shares jumped as much as 5% in post-market trading in New York before paring the gains. The cybersecurity provider has risen 16% through the close Monday.

Earnings for the current fiscal quarter will be $1.47 per share to $1.49 per share, the company said in a statement. Analysts had expected $1.43.

The company has attempted to refresh its sales strategy, with limited success, Bloomberg Intelligence said before the report. Despite the strategic shift, Palo Alto managed to grow its sales 12% last quarter, faster than expected. 

The reported full year sales of just over $8 billion was in line with consensus expectations that were moderated after it cut its outlook earlier this year.

Wall Street remained bullish overall on the stock of the Santa Clara, California-based company ahead of Monday’s earnings, which had 40 buys, 15 holds, and zero sell ratings among analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Palo Alto’s also announced its board approved an additional $500 million to repurchase shares, increasing the total authorization to $1 billion. 

The results come as a boon for Palo Alto, one of America’s leading cybersecurity companies, which has a market capitalization of $111 billion, up from $91 billion at the start of the year. Chief Executive Officer Nikesh Arora had warned back in February that customers were suffering from “spending fatigue” in cybersecurity, as the company missed Wall Street expectations for annual sales, sending the value of the company plummeting by a record 27% at the time.

Analysts have been watching to see any impact on the cybersecurity market from the mass outages last month triggered by a flaw update from CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. That includes whether CrowdStrike customers were switching to rivals or pushing back on cybersecurity vendors in general.

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