Turns out investors spooked by Palo Alto Networks Inc's (NYSE:PANW) decision to report earnings after the market closed Friday afternoon had nothing to worry about.
Shares of the cybersecurity company surged almost 8% after hours to $226.21 after its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings surpassed expectations.
Palo Alto reported earnings of $1.44 per share, up from $0.01 a year ago and topping expectations of $1.28, on revenue of $1.95 billion, up 26% and just shy of expectations of $1.96 billion.
Investors feared a much grimmer picture when the company announced when it would release its earnings, so much so that its shares had fallen 16% in August.
It’s highly unconventional, but Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora said there was a method to the madness, admitting it “made for some very interesting reading” in analyst notes.
The company had a board meeting this week and has a conference beginning on Sunday, so the plan was to get its financials reported before the event.
“Sorry to drag you out on a Friday, but I think it’s important for a few thousand people next week that we shared all these results with them,” Arora said.
Looking ahead, Palo Alto projects fiscal first-quarter revenue between $1.82 billion and $1.85 billion and full-year revenue between $8.15 billion and $8.2 billion. That’s below Street expectations of $1.93 billion and $8.38 billion, respectively.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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