Palo Alto Networks Shares Fall 7% After Cutting Full-Year Profit Outlook

Core Viewpoint - Palo Alto Networks reported fiscal second-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street estimates for both earnings and revenue, but lowered its full-year profit guidance, resulting in a more than 7% decline in shares during after-hours trading [1]. Financial Performance - For fiscal Q2 2026, Palo Alto generated earnings of $1.03 per share on revenue of $2.59 billion, surpassing analyst expectations of $0.94 per share and $2.58 billion in revenue [2]. - The company reduced its fiscal 2026 full-year earnings guidance to a range of $3.65 to $3.70 per share, down from a prior outlook of $3.80 to $3.90, while the consensus estimate was $3.87 [5]. - Palo Alto raised its full-year revenue forecast to between $11.28 billion and $11.31 billion, an increase from the previous range of $10.50 billion to $10.54 billion, exceeding expectations [5]. - For the current quarter, the company projected earnings per share of $0.78 to $0.80 on revenue between $2.941 billion and $2.945 billion, while analysts had expected earnings of $0.92 per share on revenue of $2.61 billion [6]. Business Operations - Palo Alto Networks offers a wide range of cybersecurity solutions, including firewalls, threat intelligence, zero-trust architecture, and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions [3]. - The company serves a significant client base, including nine of the ten Fortune 10 companies, eight of the ten largest U.S. banks, and six of the world's ten largest oil and gas companies [3]. - Recently, Palo Alto completed a $25 billion acquisition of Israel-based CyberArk and announced plans for a dual listing of its shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange [4].