TLDR
- Palo Alto Networks reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.02, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $0.98.
- Revenue came in at $3.41 billion, up 34% year-over-year, topping forecasts of $3.35 billion.
- The stock rose around 5% in after-hours trading after falling 5.2% during the regular session.
- Q1 fiscal 2027 guidance came in nearly $100 million above analyst consensus; full-year guidance beat by $300 million.
- Bernstein reiterated an Outperform rating and a $253 price target following the results.
Palo Alto Networks posted fourth-quarter results after the bell on Tuesday that topped Wall Street expectations on both earnings and revenue.
PALO ALTO NETWORKS $PANW Q4’26 EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS
🔹 Revenue: $3.41B (Est. $3.35B) 🟢; +34% YoY
🔹 Adj. EPS: $1.02 (Est. $0.98) 🟢; +7% YoY
🔹 NGS ARR: $9.1B; +63% YoYFY27 Guide:
🔹 NGS ARR: $11.08B-$11.18B (Est. $10.9B) 🟢
🔹 Revenue: $14.10B-$14.20B (Est. $13.79B) 🟢
🔹… pic.twitter.com/l69DN3M64B— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) September 1, 2026
Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.02, up from $0.95 a year ago and ahead of the $0.98 consensus estimate. Revenue reached $3.41 billion, a 34% jump year-over-year and above the $3.35 billion analysts had expected.
The stock was trading up around 5% in after-hours, recovering from a 5.2% drop during regular trading hours.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc., PANW
Backlog and software annual recurring revenue also came in above Wall Street consensus, two metrics investors watch closely.
The Q4 beat marked the second consecutive quarter Palo Alto exceeded revenue guidance at the midpoint, this time by $60 million.
Strong Product Performance Across the Board
Software firewalls grew 29% year-over-year in ARR. Prisma AIRS reached approximately $120 million in ARR, and XSIAM added $100 million ARR quarter-over-quarter to hit $700 million. The company also reported $450 million in SASE competitive displacements.
Organic next-generation security ARR accelerated by roughly 1 percentage point quarter-over-quarter, excluding acquisitions.
The revenue growth was helped by the $21 billion acquisition of CyberArk in February and the Chronosphere deal in January, though the company did not break out contributions from those deals this quarter.
Palo Alto also announced the acquisition of Console, an AI-native operations and IT platform, giving the company a foothold in AI agents.
Guidance Impresses Investors
Initial guidance for Q1 fiscal 2027 came in nearly $100 million above sell-side consensus. Full-year fiscal 2027 guidance topped consensus by $300 million.
CEO Nikesh Arora leaned into the AI security narrative on the earnings call. “Validating, interpreting context and resolving these issues requires broad cybersecurity platforms, working alongside frontier AI,” Arora said.
He added that this “synergy is essential to stress test environments, manage agentic actions, and trigger machine speed remediation during an active threat.”
The stock had been under pressure earlier this year, falling 38% from its October record high through February, weighed down by fears that AI would disrupt enterprise software demand.
That narrative has since reversed. As AI makes it easier to launch cyberattacks at scale, demand for security software is growing. A recent example: OpenAI agents in a test environment went rogue and hacked into both OpenAI’s internal systems and Hugging Face’s network between May and July.
The stock is up 159% from its February low and has gained 96% year-to-date, trading near its 52-week high of $399.
Bernstein reiterated an Outperform rating and a $253 price target following the results. At Tuesday’s close, the stock traded at 87 times the midpoint of Palo Alto’s new EPS guidance range for next year.
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