By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Palo Alto (NASDAQ:PANW) stock surged 7.2% in premarket Wednesday as demand for cybersecurity solutions in an increasingly hybrid work environment brought a higher guidance from the company after second quarter earnings.
The company now expects annual revenue of $5.45 billion at the center of its guidance range, up 28% and higher than the guidance of around $5.38 billion given over three months ago. Total billings are seen touching at least $6.8 billion, compared to $6.73 billion at the top end of the range guided earlier. On the higher side, current year billings could touch $6.85 billion, the company said.
Second quarter revenue grew 30% year-on-year to $1.3 billion while billings were up 32% as more companies embrace work from home, creating a need to secure systems at multiple remote locations.
“In Q2, our company continued to benefit from strength across our three security platforms, driven by strong cybersecurity demand, organizations architecting for hybrid work and growing their hyperscale cloud footprints," Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said in a statement. Arora joined Palo Alto around four years ago after less than a two-year stint at Softbank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY) (T:9984).
Remaining performance obligation, an indication of future revenue stream, grew 36% to $6.3 billion.
Adjusted profit per share rose 12% to $1.74 and beat estimates.