Palo Alto Networks beats Q2 expectations, rolls out new AI-based platform
Palo Alto Networks reported its fiscal second quarter 2019 results on Tuesday, beating market expectations.
Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $147 million, or $1.51 per diluted share. Revenue was came to $711.2 million, up 30 percent year-over-year.
Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.22 on revenue of $682.1 million.
"We remain focused on delivering to our customers the best security in the market," CEO Nikesh Arora said in a statement. "Our recently introduced products and services, including Cortex XDR, Traps 6.0, PAN-OS 9.0, the DNS Security Service subscription, and our fastest ever Next-Generation Firewall, coupled with the proposed acquisition of Demisto, further enhance and expand our capabilities, making security simpler and more effective through the use of artificial intelligence, analytics, automation and orchestration."
Second quarter billings grew 27 percent year-over-year to $852.5 million, while deferred revenue grew 32 percent to $2.5 billion.
The cybersecurity company also announced that on Feb. 22, its board of directors authorized a $1 billion share repurchase. The authorization allows the company to repurchase its shares opportunistically and will be funded from available working capital.
Meanwhile, Palo Alto Networks on Tuesday also unveiled Cortex, an AI-based security platform that allows security operations teams to speed the analysis of massive data sets. Cortex XDR is a cybersecurity product that natively integrates network, endpoint and cloud data.
For the third quarter, Palo Alto Networks expects non-GAAP net income per share in the range of $1.23 to $1.25, including expenses related to the proposed Demisto acquisition. It expects revenue in the range of $697 million to $707 million.