Palo Alto Networks raises FY22 revenue guidance

Palo Alto Networks on Thursday published solid first quarter financial results and raised its FY 2022 revenue guidance. 

Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter was $170.3 million, or $1.64 per diluted share. First-quarter revenue grew 32% year-over-year to $1.2 billion. 

Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $1.2 billion.

“Q1 was a strong start to fiscal year 2022, driven by strength in both our product and Next-Generation Security businesses, giving us confidence to raise our revenue and billings guidance for the year,” chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said in a statement. “We continue to see strong customer demand and have continued to release key innovations which give us confidence in the durable growth we presented at our September Analyst Day.”   

First-quarter billings grew 28% year-over-year to $1.4 billion. Remaining performance obligation (RPO) grew 37% to $6 billion.

The company highlighted the performance of Primsa SASE, noting rapid adoption of the secure access service edge (SASE) service. Prisma SASE saw 100% year-over-year ARR growth. Meanwhile, more than 25% of new Prisma SASE customers are new to Palo Alto Networks over the last 12 months. The company now has 1,756 SASE customers, up 61% year-over-year.

In the area of cloud-native security, Palo Alto reported that it now has 1,676 Prisma Cloud customers up 26% year-over-year.

For Q2 2022, Palo Alto expects revenue in the range of $1.265 billion to $1.285 billion. 

Analysts are expecting revenue of $1.27 billion. 

For the full fiscal year 2022, the company expects total revenue in the range of $5.35 billion to $5.40 billion, representing year-over-year growth of between 26% and 27%. Last quarter, the company forecast FY2022 revenue in the range of $5.275 billion to $5.325 billion.