Palo Alto beats Q4 estimates with strength in large customer transactions

Palo Alto Networks on Monday reported better-than-expected fourth quarter financial results, highlighting "notable strength in large customer transactions."

As many as 18 customers signed 8-figure transactions in Q4, the company said.

Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $161.9 million, or $1.60 per diluted share. Fourth quarter revenue grew 28% year-over-year to $1.2 billion. 

Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.43 per share on revenue of $1.17 billion.

For the full fiscal year 2021, revenue grew 25% to $4.3 billion.

"Our strong Q4 performance was the culmination of executing on our strategy throughout the year, including product innovation, platform integration, business model transformation and investments in our go-to-market organization," chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said in a statement. "In particular, we saw notable strength in large customer transactions with strategic commitments across our Strata, Prisma and Cortex platforms."  

Fourth quarter billings grew 34% year-over-year to $1.9 billion. Fiscal year 2021 billings grew 27% to $5.5 billion.

Deferred revenue grew 32% year-over-year to $5 billion, while remaining performance obligation (RPO) grew 36% to $5.9 billion. 

For Q1 2022, Palo Alto expects revenue in the range of $1.19 billion to $1.21 billion. 

Analysts are expecting revenue of $1.15 billion. 

For the fiscal year 2022, the company expects revenue in the range of $5.275 billion to $5.325 billion.