Palo Alto Networks surges after delivering 'Aaron Judge-like' Q2, guidance: Wedbush
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Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) surged nearly 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the cybersecurity company reported fiscal second-quarter results and guidance that investment firm Wedbush Securities called "Aaron Judge-like" in a nod to the feared New York Yankees slugger.
Analyst Dan Ives, who has an outperform rating on Palo Alto (PANW), noted the results were "solid" and should calm fears of worries about slowdowns in the cybersecurity sector.
"Taking a step back, the cloud transformation at [Palo Alto] is well underway and the company is becoming the Aaron Judge of cyber security as larger more strategic deals are getting inked despite the 'best days are in the rear view mirror' Street naysayer crowd," Ives wrote.
Ives boosted his per-share price target on Palo Alto Networks (PANW) to $210 from $200 following the results.
For the period ending January 31, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) earned $1.05 per share on $1.7B in revenue. Analysts were expecting Palo Alto (PANW) to earn 78 cents per share on $1.65B in revenue.
In addition, Palo Alto (PANW) said billings rose 26% year-over-year to $2.03B during the period, while remaining performance obligations clocked in at $8.8B, topping estimates of $8.38B.
Looking ahead, Palo Alto (PANW) said it expects third-quarter billings to be between $2.2B and $2.25B, topping estimates of $2.22B. It forecast earnings to be between 90 and 94 cents per share, excluding one-time items, while revenue is expected to be within a range of $1.7B to $1.73B.
For the full-year, Palo Alto (PANW) expects to earn between $3.97 and $4.03 per share, excluding one-time items.
In late 2022, Morgan Stanley listed Palo Alto Networks (PANW) among its top software picks for 2023.