Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) Earnings
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is expected to report next earnings on November 18, 2026 (in NaN days), with a consensus EPS estimate of $0.93. PANW has beaten EPS estimates in 8 of its last 12 reported quarters (average surprise +6.2% over the last four).
| Report date | EPS est | EPS actual | Surprise | Revenue | Rev. surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | $0.98 | $1.02 | +4.0% | $3.4B | +2.2% |
| Jun 2, 2026 | $0.80 | $0.85 | +6.6% | $3.0B | +2.5% |
| Feb 17, 2026 | $0.94 | $1.03 | +9.6% | $2.6B | +0.4% |
| Nov 19, 2025 | $0.89 | $0.93 | +4.3% | $2.5B | +0.5% |
| Aug 18, 2025 | $0.88 | $0.95 | +7.5% | $2.5B | +1.4% |
| May 20, 2025 | $0.77 | $0.80 | +3.8% | $2.3B | +0.5% |
| Feb 13, 2025 | $0.78 | $0.81 | +3.7% | $2.3B | +0.6% |
| Nov 20, 2024 | $1.47 | $0.78 | -46.9% | $2.1B | +0.7% |
| Aug 19, 2024 | $1.40 | $0.75 | -46.5% | $2.2B | +0.8% |
| May 20, 2024 | $1.26 | $0.66 | -47.7% | $2.0B | +0.2% |
| Feb 20, 2024 | $1.29 | $0.73 | -43.5% | $2.0B | +0.0% |
| Nov 15, 2023 | $0.58 | $0.69 | +18.4% | $1.9B | +1.6% |
Source: company filings + earnings calendar. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
Earnings call summary
Q4 FY2026 · September 1, 2026
AI summary of management’s prepared remarks and analyst Q&A. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
Management highlights
- **Platformization Success**: Achieved approximately 220 net new platformizations in Q4, doubling previous records. Platformized cohorts show Net Revenue Retention (NRR) exceeding 120%. - **AI as a Tailwind**: AI is driving demand for unified defense. Agentic traffic surged 9x over nine months. The 'Mythos' event highlighted the need for machine-speed defense, shifting customer focus from visibility to velocity. - **Strategic Acquisitions**: Successfully integrated CyberArk (IDERA) and Chronosphere. IDERA saw >200 net new logos from the install base. Chronosphere ARR doubled post-acquisition, serving major AI labs. - **Product Milestones**: Prisma Access surpassed $100 million ARR within four quarters of GA, the fastest scale in company history. XDR surpassed 1,000 customers. Console and Embrace acquisitions closed in Q4 to enhance AI-first operations and real-user monitoring. - **Market Dynamics**: Displaced legacy incumbents in nearly 100 accounts with over $400 million in Total Contract Value (TCV) for SASE. Customers are increasingly prioritizing unified platforms to address technical debt and secure autonomous agents.
Guidance
- **Q1 FY27 Guidance**: Expects NGS ARR of $9.54-$9.56 billion (+63%), RPO of $20.8-$20.9 billion (+34-35%), and Revenue of $3.30-$3.31 billion (+33-34%). Diluted Non-GAAP EPS expected at $0.96-$0.98. - **FY27 Full Year Guidance**: Expects NGS ARR of $11.075-$11.175 billion (+22-23%), RPO of $25.2-$25.4 billion (+19-20%), and Revenue of $14.1-$14.2 billion (+23-24%). - **Margin & Cash Flow**: Operating margin guided at 29.5%. Diluted Non-GAAP EPS guided at $4.16-$4.19. Adjusted Free Cash Flow margin guided at 38%. - **Revenue Growth Trajectory**: Network and AI Security low double-digit growth; Cortex ~30% growth; IDERA high teens to 20% growth. - **Seasonality Note**: Q1 FY27 net new NGS ARR will be larger than normal due to the tail end of a large LLM customer migration to Chronosphere.
Segment performance
The company reported record financial performance across its key platforms. Network and AI Security revenue grew 17% to $8.35 billion, driven by strong software firewall growth (29% ARR) and hardware adoption. Cortex revenue increased 25% to $1.92 billion, with XDR ARR up 70% and Observability ARR surpassing $500 million following the Chronosphere acquisition. IDERA (formerly CyberArk) pro forma revenue reached $1.26 billion, growing 21%. Next-Generation Security (NGS) ARR hit a record $9.1 billion, up 63%, representing nearly $1 billion in net new NGS ARR for the quarter alone.
Risks & headwinds
- **Gross Margin Pressure**: Gross margin declined 100 bps YoY in Q4 due to a mix shift toward faster-growing but lower-margin SaaS offerings. Cloud hosting costs are expected to grow faster than revenue in FY27. - **Hardware Cost Inflation**: Rising commodity costs for memory and storage in the hardware business (approx. 10% of revenue) pose ongoing supply chain risks. - **Integration Complexity**: While synergies are ahead of plan, integrating large acquisitions like CyberArk requires continued disciplined execution to maintain margin expansion. - **Customer Adoption Pace**: The transition to platformization and addressing technical debt is a multi-year process; customers may take time to assess environments before full deployment.
Analyst Q&A
Q: Rob Bowens asked about M&A strategy given rapid AI shifts (LLMs to agents to open-weight).
A: Nikesh Arora stated M&A is a consequence of product development gaps. As AI trends shift, Palo Alto acquires companies that have the right technology quickly to ensure customers have robust security harnesses before deploying agents or open-weight models, rather than building everything internally.
Q: Brian Essex asked about CyberArk (IDERA) penetration into the existing install base and revenue synergies vs. cost synergies.
A: Arora noted that while cost synergies were achieved rapidly (margin uplift), the primary value was market leadership in identity security. They launched 'Modern PAM' to upgrade traditional customers, expecting to run faster than CyberArk did standalone while expanding margins.
Q: Saket Kalia asked if AI threats are changing buying behavior toward more willingness to platformize and less price sensitivity.
A: Arora confirmed that the 'Mythos' moment forced CEOs to realize vulnerabilities are found instantly. This drives long-term conversations about modernizing infrastructure via unified platforms to solve problems, rather than buying fragmented tools, creating a durable tailwind for large vendors.
Q: Fatima Balani asked about Operational Technology (OT) security gating factors and cooperation with Frontier Labs.
A: Arora explained OT patching is hard, so they built a capability to deploy signatures for OT/open-source vulnerabilities in under 4 hours (vs. 55 days industry standard). The main gating factor is customer assessment/POC pace, not capability. Partnerships with OpenAI/Anthropic allow testing against their models to build these defenses.
Q: Brad Zelnick asked what customers will stop doing themselves in 5 years due to AI success.
A: Arora’s 'North Star' is reducing human intervention in detection/prevention/remediation. He envisions an AI-first, data-oriented company where agents replace manual tasks. If successful, customers will rely on Palo Alto agents to autonomously manage security deployments, leveraging the vast telemetry data ingested daily.