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Palo Alto Networks<\/a> surpassed fiscal fourth-quarter<\/a> estimates as mounting artificial intelligence<\/a> risks boost demand for its cybersecurity tools. <\/p>\n Shares dipped about 2% in extended trading, following a 5% drop during the regular session. <\/p>\n Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:<\/p>\n Revenue jumped 34% during the quarter from $2.54 billion a year ago, the company said. Palo Alto reported a net loss of $282 million, or 35 cents per share, down from net income of $254 million, or 36 cents per share, a year ago.<\/p>\n The acceleration of AI attacks is forcing customers to build better and faster cyber defenses, CEO Nikesh Arora told CNBC. Those concerns have already moved the needle, but the long-term growth runway is still in the early stages.<\/p>\n “This is a long-term tailwind,” he said. “It will not happen in one quarter, and it will not happen in two. It just underpins the long-term duration from a growth rate perspective for our business.”<\/p>\n Shares of Palo Alto Networks have nearly doubled this year as the rise of highly capable AI models like Anthropic<\/a>‘s Mythos<\/a> spurs demand for newer security tools to detect and respond to agentic cyberattacks.<\/p>\n Agentic AI concerns have accelerated as breaches, like the OpenAI<\/a>–Hugging Face<\/a> hack, prove that agents can increasingly plan and orchestrate attacks autonomously.<\/p>\n But Palo Alto isn’t the only beneficiary of the AI security race. Last week, both CrowdStrike<\/a> and Okta<\/a> surged<\/a> on upbeat earnings and guidance as customers spend on more cyber tools.<\/p>\n Stock Chart IconStock chart icon Palo Alto Networks stock chart.<\/p>\n Arora said Palo Alto has held over 2,000 customer briefings, up from the roughly 1,200 it disclosed last quarter, in the wake of the Anthropic<\/a> Mythos launch. <\/p>\n Palo Alto also announced the acquisition of AI startup Console<\/a> as it deepens its AI security offerings. In just over a year, Arora has accelerated an aggressive dealmaking push<\/a>, which included shelling out $25 billion for identity security firm CyberArk and nearly $3.4 billion for Chronosphere \u2014 its largest acquisitions to date.<\/p>\n “I see the cyber startup ecosystem as a large lab where people are trying different things,” Arora said, adding that Palo can look to acquire from the space if its internal approach isn’t working. <\/p>\n Palo Alto issued upbeat guidance, expecting $3.30 billion to $3.31 billion in revenue for the first quarter, topping an analyst estimate of $3.22 billion. <\/p>\n For the full year, the company forecasted between $14.10 billion and $14.20 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $4.16 to $4.19. That surpassed the $13.79 billion revenue and $4.11 EPS forecast.<\/p>\n\n
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