Palo Alto Shares Rise After Revenue Beat, $500 Million Buyback

Shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW were trading up more than 2 percent in Tuesday’s after-hours session following the announcement of the company’s Q4 results. While EPS of $0.50 were in line with the Street’s consensus, revenue of $400.8 million, up 41.2 percent year-over-year, beat estimate by $11.1 million.

For the ongoing quarter, management guided for revenues of $396 million to $402 million, below expectations for $402.23 million in sales. The non-GAAP EPS outlook of $0.51-$0.53 also missed estimates of $0.56.

Management said it envisions fiscal 2017 non-GAAP EPS of $2.75-$2.80, well above the Street’s consensus of $2.64.

Also helping the stock was the announcement of a $500 million share repurchase plan.

CEO Mark McLaughlin said, "Fourth quarter 2016 was a very strong finish to yet another record fiscal year. Revenue for the year was $1.4 billion, up 49 percent year over year, our customer base expanded to approximately 34,000 customers, we extended our platform capabilities both with new offerings and strategic partnerships, and we established new routes to market while driving significant growth across our partner ecosystem… The security industry is seeing a rapid transformation from legacy hardware and point products to integrated and automated capabilities that seamlessly work together as a platform.."

Shares traded recently at $146.75, up 2.3 percent.