As the Q4 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the cybersecurity industry, including Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) and its peers.
Cybersecurity continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments within software for good reason. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing rising cybersecurity risks. Businesses are accelerating adoption of cloud-based software, moving data and applications into the cloud to save costs while improving performance. This migration has opened them to a multitude of new threats, like employees accessing data via their smartphone while on an open network, or logging into a web-based interface from a laptop in a new location.
The 9 cybersecurity stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.5% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.
Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 6.6% since the latest earnings results.
Founded in 2005 by security visionary Nir Zuk who sought to reimagine firewall technology, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) provides AI-powered cybersecurity platforms that protect organizations’ networks, clouds, and endpoints from sophisticated threats.
Palo Alto Networks reported revenues of $2.59 billion, up 14.9% year on year. This print was in line with analysts’ expectations, and overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and revenue guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations.
Palo Alto Networks pulled off the highest full-year guidance raise of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 2.2% since reporting and currently trades at $167.15.
Is now the time to buy Palo Alto Networks? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Known for detecting the massive SolarWinds hack in 2020 that compromised numerous government agencies, CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions that protect endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data through its Falcon platform.
CrowdStrike reported revenues of $1.31 billion, up 23.3% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 0.6%. The business had a strong quarter with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 8.3% since reporting. It currently trades at $423.85.
