Palo Alto Networks reports strong Q1 results, appoints new CFO
Palo Alto Networks published its first quarter fiscal 2018 financial results on Monday, beating market expectations and sending shares up in after-hours trading.
The security company posted non-GAAP net income of $69.8 million, or 74 cents per diluted share, compared with non-GAAP net income of $51.2 million, or 55 cents per diluted share, a year prior. It posted record first-quarter revenue at $505.5 million, which represents 27 percent year-over-year growth.
Wall Street was expecting non-GAAP earnings of 69 cents on revenue of $489 million.
"We continue to drive disruptive evolutions in a large and growing market by delivering highly automated and orchestrated security capabilities that increase prevention rates and simplify consumption models," CEO Mark McLaughlin said in a statement.
The company added more than 2,500 new customers in Q1, bringing its total number of customers to more than 45,000. Retiring CFO Steffan Tomlinson credited the strong quarter to the company's "land and expand" go-to-market model and broad adoption of its Next-Generation Security Platform.
"Once again, we grew significantly faster than the market and our competition," he said.
Palo Alto Networks also announced the appointment of Kathy Bonanno as the company's next CFO. She has held senior finance positions at Palo Alto Networks since 2014. Before that, she held senior finance positions at Symantec Corporation and American Airlines.
"With more than three years at Palo Alto Networks and a decade in cybersecurity, [Bonanno] has an intimate knowledge of our company, the industry, and broad expertise across finance disciplines, as well as a proven track record of building world-class organizations," McLaughlin said in a statement.
For Q2, Palo Alto Networks is expecting non-GAAP net income per share in the range of 78 cents to 80 cents on revenue in the range of $518 to $528 million.
For the full fiscal year 2018, the company expects non-GAAP net income per share in the range of $3.35 to $3.41 on revenue in the range of $2.145 to $2.185 billion.