Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is in focus after its latest quarterly results topped expectations for revenue, profit and subscription annual recurring revenue (ARR). Under CEO Nikesh Arora, the cybersecurity company has used acquisitions to broaden its platform, while its shares have gained about 85% in 2026. Investors are now watching whether those deals can continue translating into revenue growth and whether Palo Alto Networks can build a broader position in AI security.
Intraday data as of September 24, 2026, showed the stock at $393.91 with little change. A separate reading at 11:28 a.m. Eastern time put the shares at $388.17, down $5.13, or 1.3%. The figures are not real-time quotes. Technically, the stock is attempting to form a cup base, with a buy point at $398.88, based on the 52-week high reached on August 13. PANW has already moved above a short-term high and is within an actionable watch zone, while its relative strength line has reached a new high on the weekly chart.
Arora builds a broader security platform through acquisitions
Palo Alto Networks traditionally sold enterprise network firewalls designed to block intrusions and monitor internet-based applications. Since Arora became chief executive in early June 2018, the company has expanded beyond firewalls into cloud security, security operations, endpoint protection and identity security.
The company has completed about 25 acquisitions during Arora's tenure, spending roughly $33 billion in total. That includes last year's $21 billion CyberArk transaction.
In early 2024, Palo Alto Networks introduced a strategy focused on accelerating platform consolidation. Management told analysts that offering deeper discounts to customers buying multiple products could support larger, longer-term contracts and help drive next-generation subscription ARR toward a $15 billion target. The approach also prompted debate on Wall Street over the balance between organic growth and growth generated through acquisitions.
The acquisitions have also helped Palo Alto Networks expand into endpoint protection. These tools detect malware on corporate laptops, mobile phones and other devices connected to company networks. As artificial intelligence lowers the cost of reconnaissance, social-engineering attacks and sophisticated malware development, businesses are expected to continue increasing their cybersecurity spending. Security vendors are also deploying AI more widely across threat detection, investigation and response.
CyberArk and Chronosphere add to quarterly growth
Palo Alto Networks' latest July-quarter results came in above expectations, with recently acquired businesses including CyberArk and Chronosphere contributing to growth. On an adjusted basis, fourth-quarter earnings per share rose 7% from a year earlier to $1.02, while revenue increased 34% to $3.41 billion. The figures include contributions from acquisitions and the product price increases announced in April. Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of 98 cents per share and revenue of $3.35 billion.
Subscription ARR rose 63% to $9.1 billion, exceeding the market expectation of $8.93 billion. Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick said the renamed Idira business, formerly associated with CyberArk, and Chronosphere were both growing faster than they had as standalone companies and ahead of initial expectations. He said Palo Alto Networks was using its ability to identify, acquire and rapidly scale assets as it integrated businesses during a period of rapid technology change.
CyberArk's core expertise is privileged access management. Its identity security platform covers employee and customer access, endpoint privilege security, secrets management and identity administration. As companies deploy autonomous AI agents capable of completing multistep tasks with less human supervision, the management of identities, credentials and permissions is becoming more important. These agents can move among databases, cloud services and enterprise applications, creating a need for clear controls over the credentials and access rights they can use.
Chronosphere benefits from demand among AI customers
Chronosphere provides a cloud-based observability platform that helps large enterprises deploy and monitor network applications. Bernstein Research analyst Peter Weed said faster growth from the recently acquired businesses was an important part of the quarterly performance.
Management said that, after a large large-language-model customer migrated to Chronosphere, the move added more than $100 million to next-generation ARR. The customer was not named in the company’s comments but is understood to be OpenAI. Chronosphere replaced the previous observability provider across several key metrics workloads at the AI laboratory and captured a significant portion of its underlying infrastructure-monitoring spending.
Fiscal 2027 guidance exceeds market forecasts
Palo Alto Networks forecast fiscal 2027 revenue at a midpoint of $14.15 billion, up 23% from the prior year and above the consensus estimate of $13.843 billion. The company expects remaining performance obligations (RPO) of $25.3 billion, an annual increase of 19% and above the market forecast of $24.78 billion. Subscription ARR is projected at $11.125 billion, up 22% and ahead of the $10.915 billion consensus estimate.
Investors will continue to assess how much of that incremental growth comes from acquisitions, pricing changes and cross-selling, as well as how post-deal integration costs affect profitability. The disclosed figures show expansion across revenue, RPO and subscription ARR, but future results will still depend on whether the newly acquired businesses can continue to scale.
Palo Alto Networks has an IBD Composite Rating of 99 out of 99. The rating combines several proprietary measures generally used to assess earnings, price performance and growth characteristics. Its Accumulation/Distribution Rating is B+, indicating that the balance of price and volume activity over the past 13 weeks has generally pointed to buying pressure. The measure itself does not predict the stock’s future direction.