BlackBerry Ltd T.BB

RE:BlackBerry Peers Continue to Reward Shareholders

[Csalgado]

why are you comparing palo alto a manufaturer of network hardware toa SW vendor..

hardware /  software.... big diff..

KBB161718192030 wrote:

Palo Alto Networks beats expectations with a strong Q4 report

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Santa Clara-based Palo Alto Networks reported 22 percent growth in quarterly revenue year over year in its Q$ 2019 report — about $805.8 million.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. had good news to deliver in its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.

The Santa Clara-based company reported 22 percent growth in quarterly revenue year over year — $805.8 million, compared to $658.5 million for Q4 2018. And its overall revenue for 2019 grew 28 percent year over year to $2.9 billion.

The company’s earnings of $1.47 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.42 per share, compared to earnings of $1.28 per share a year ago.

"We had a strong fourth quarter, surpassing a billion dollars in billings within the quarter for the first time, and achieving approximately 180% year-over-year growth in our newer Prisma and Cortex offerings,” Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said in company's report. “This year we acquired and released important new technologies and built a robust go-to-market framework for driving their success in the market. It's gratifying to see all the team's hard work translate into strong market results."

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors, called this “one of the most important quarters/guides from PANW that we can remember in many years” as Palo Alto Networks makes a shift in its business model to conduct more annual deals that are shorter in duration, as opposed to more traditional three-year deal model.

“We believe PANW's strategic view on security and centering their offering around data/machine learning and automated responses, which is only further beefed up by its recent acquisitions, will fuel the PANW growth engine into the rest of 2020/2021 and beyond … We maintain our OUTPERFORM rating and $275 price target,” Ives wrote in an analyst note.

 

At the market’s opening this morning, Palo Alto Networks’ stock was up about 7 percent to about $217.40 a share — up from $200.45 at market’s close on Sept. 4 — with a market cap of $20.52 billion.

Palo Alto Networks also announced on Wednesday the $75 million acquisition of Zingbox, an Internet of Things security company based in Mountain View. Zingbox CEO Xu Zou and co-founders May Wang and Jianlin Zeng will be joining Palo Alto Networks as part of the acquisition.

“Zingbox will add to the capabilities of our Next-Generation Firewall by offering a first-of-its kind subscription that will make it easier for organizations to protect IoT devices from attackers,” Arora said.

In May, Palo Alto Networks made another cybersecurity acquisition in the form of a $410 million deal for Portland, Oregon-based Twistlock, adding its technology to Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma cloud security product. Twistlock co-founders Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel joined Palo Alto Networks as a result of the deal.

The company also bought Cupertino-based Demisto Inc., a digital security startup founded by four former McAfee executives, in February for $560 million — more than twice its previous valuation in fall 2018.