Palo Alto Networks Sees its First $1B Sales Quarter

It was a day of celebration for American multi-national cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks when it reported quarterly results this week.

The company reported its first $1 billion quarter of revenue. The big milestone comes as clients flocked to secure their network defenses in the aftermath of the cyber-attack by suspected Russian hackers recently.

For the quarter ended January 31st, Palo Alto Networks reported that sales increased 25% to $1.02 billion. It was the biggest YOY increase in the last seven quarters according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While the quarter was remarkable, it failed to impress Wall Street as shares tumbled as much as 5.8% in premarket trading. The last quarterly report that the company had put out had sparked a 38% rally back in November.

Palo Altos Networks said that the malicious Russian attack, which compromised popular software from Texas-based SolarWinds Corp., has scared clients and forced company boards to reconsider their cybersecurity posture.

“Every board out there is doing their cyber assessments to make sure they won’t be breached in the future,” said Nikesh Arora, chairman and chief executive officer of Palo Alto Networks. “What we’re noticing is a rethinking of the cybersecurity architecture.”

As many as 18,000 SolarWinds clients were exposed to the Russian malware.

Looking ahead, the company has forecast fiscal third quarter earnings per share of $1.27 to $1.29 excluding some items and revenue of $1.05 billion to $1.06 billion.

Analysts estimated profit of $1.29 a share and sales of $1.05 billion.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.