Palo Alto Networks Jumps 8% Following Q1 Results

Palo Alto Networks PANW is up more than eight percent in after hours trading after the firm announced its first quarter results. Palo Alto's Q1 EPS came in at $0.08 versus the Street estimate of $0.07. Revenue arrived at $128.2 million versus the Street estimate of $120.81 million. Sales were up 49 percent year-over-year. "Demand was strong across a wide range of theaters and verticals, resulting in 14 percent sequential revenue growth in our fiscal first quarter," Mark McLaughlin, President and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, said in a company release. "We added over 1,000 new customers, steadily increased penetration of our existing customer base and made clear market share gains. "Our results continue to prove that our next-generation enterprise security platform is becoming the mainstream market choice for enterprise network security around the world. The success of our WildFire subscription for the APT market is continued evidence of how we can leverage the unique attributes of our platform to drive leadership in the fast growing cybersecurity market segment." Palo Alto's growth is welcome news to investors. Year-to-date, the firm's shares have fallen more than 11 percent. Today marks the first notable growth since the end of June, when Palo Alto began to recover from its year-to-date low of $39.56. Palo Alto closed at $46.10 (up 1.77 percent) on Monday. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ