Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW)

Palo Alto Networks reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.41 billion on 1 September 2026, up 34 percent from a year earlier 2.

Its annual recurring revenue from next-generation products, which the company calls NGS ARR, grew 63 percent to $9.10 billion 2.

For the full year, net income was $307 million on revenue of $11.48 billion, and the Chronosphere and CyberArk purchases added an operating loss of $797 million 1.

Chief executive Nikesh Arora said the latest advances in AI are elevating cybersecurity to the top of the CIO priority list 2.

The company completed the purchase of Console, an AI-native platform for agentic workflows, and expects fiscal 2027 revenue of $14.10 billion to $14.20 billion 2.

Shareholders vote at the virtual annual meeting on 8 December 2026, including on a shareholder proposal asking for a study of broad-based employee ownership 3.

Palo Alto Networks was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California 1.

Its core is still the next-generation firewall, a device or program that screens network traffic, now sold with add-on subscription services such as threat prevention and web filtering 1.

Revenue grew 16 percent to $8.03 billion in fiscal 2024, 15 percent to $9.22 billion in fiscal 2025 and 24 percent to $11.48 billion in fiscal 2026 1.

Gross margin, the share of revenue left after the cost of making and delivering products, slid from 74.3 percent in fiscal 2024 to 70.4 percent in fiscal 2026 1.

Net income was $2.58 billion in fiscal 2024, helped by a $1.59 billion income tax benefit, then $1.13 billion in fiscal 2025 and $307 million in fiscal 2026 1.

Net cash from operating activities rose from $3.26 billion in fiscal 2024 to $3.72 billion in fiscal 2025 and $4.55 billion in fiscal 2026, even as net income fell 1.

Research and development spending, the cost of building products, rose from $1.81 billion in fiscal 2024 to $2.55 billion in fiscal 2026 1.

The company split its shares two for one on 12 December 2024 1.

In fiscal 2026 it completed Chronosphere on 29 January 2026 and CyberArk on 11 February 2026, with CyberArk's total purchase consideration at $21.1 billion 1.

ITPro reported on 12 February 2026 that the CyberArk deal was worth $25 billion and was meant to let the company secure human, machine and agent identities 4.

CyberScoop reported on 19 November 2025 that the company agreed to buy Chronosphere for $3.35 billion, and that the target had annual recurring revenue above $160 million as of September 2025 5.

Network and AI Security

This is the firewall and network business: Prisma Access for remote users and branches, hardware and software firewalls, and cloud-delivered add-on services that inspect traffic 1.

Prisma AIRS is its AI security platform, covering AI agents, applications, models and data, and in fiscal 2026 it introduced PAN-OS 12.1 Orion, Prisma AIRS 2.0 and Prisma AIRS 3.0 1.

SDxCentral reported that the Network Security segment earned $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter, including a $126 million deal with an unnamed telecom provider 7.

Subscriptions, support and hardware

In fiscal 2026 subscriptions brought in $6.24 billion, support $2.96 billion and product sales, mostly firewalls and software licences, $2.28 billion 1.

Two distributors accounted for 30 percent of fiscal 2026 revenue, and the company counted more than 8,700 channel partners on 31 July 2026 1.

Cortex, Chronosphere and Console

Cortex is its security operations platform, including XSIAM, XDR, XSOAR and Xpanse, plus Cortex Cloud for protecting cloud applications 1.

Chronosphere, bought in January 2026, adds observability, meaning watching the health of a customer's software systems, and Embrace Mobile, closed on 27 August 2026 for $325 million, adds user monitoring 1.

Console closed on 1 September 2026, and the company said it will expand the role of Cortex across the broader enterprise agentic transformation 12.

Idira and Unit 42

Idira is the identity security platform formed from CyberArk, covering workforce, privileged, machine and AI-agent identities 1.

ITPro reported on 12 February 2026 that machine identities now outnumber human identities by more than 80 to one, the company noted 4.

Unit 42 is the threat research, incident response and consulting arm, which launched Frontier AI Defense services in April 2026 1.

Where it sells

In fiscal 2026 the Americas brought in $7.68 billion, EMEA $2.43 billion and Asia Pacific and Japan $1.37 billion 1.

People, sites and rivals

Nikesh Arora is chair and chief executive, and the company had a global workforce of 21,921 on 31 July 2026 13.

It leases about 941,000 square feet at its Santa Clara headquarters under three leases that end in July 2040, and owns 24.9 acres of land next to it 1.

The annual report names Alphabet, Cisco and Microsoft among large rivals, and Check Point, CrowdStrike, Fortinet, Okta and Zscaler among independent security vendors 1.

Problems and disputes

A jury found non-willful infringement of Centripetal Networks patents on 31 January 2024, and the court later cut the damages to $114 million, with a bond posted while appeals are pending 1.

A separate case by Finjan, filed on 4 November 2014, is on appeal after summary judgment of non-infringement on 21 March 2025 1.

In fiscal 2026 the company recognized about $562 million of net losses from changes in the fair value of convertible notes acquired from CyberArk and related capped calls 1.

The umbrella, in words

Its main brands are Prisma for network and AI security, Cortex for security operations, Idira for identity, Chronosphere for observability and Unit 42 for threat research 1.

Exhibit 21 lists subsidiaries including Chronosphere, LLC, CyberArk Software, Inc., Koi Security, Inc., Portkey Inc. and Protect AI, Inc. 8.

It owns outright the companies it bought in 2026, each a tie of ownership: Chronosphere in January, CyberArk in February, Koi in April and Portkey in May 1.

The proxy table, set at 18 September 2026, lists Vanguard Capital Management with 60,785,782 shares, 7.4 percent, per a filing of 30 April 2026 3.

It lists BlackRock, Inc. with 49,244,010 shares, 6.0 percent, per a filing of 26 January 2024 3.

Arora's own beneficial holding is 2,158,729 shares, under one percent, a person's stake and not the company's 3.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2027 the company expects revenue of $3.300 billion to $3.310 billion and NGS ARR of $9.54 billion to $9.56 billion 2.

For all of fiscal 2027 it expects a non-GAAP operating margin of 29.5 percent and an adjusted free cash flow margin of 38.0 percent 2.

Arora cited a $20 billion FY30 NGS ARR target, and finance chief Dipak Golechha cited a 40 percent adjusted free cash flow margin in FY28 2.

Shareholders of record on 9 October 2026 can vote at the online annual meeting on 8 December 2026, where the board backs its own items and opposes the employee-ownership study 3.

On 17 February 2026 the company said Koi's agentic endpoint security would extend Prisma AIRS and strengthen Cortex XDR after the deal closed 6.

The company says it plans to keep investing significantly in research and development and intends to develop its 24.9 acres of land for expansion 1.