Palo Alto Networks delivered a robust fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, surpassing revenue guidance and extending leadership across its three platform pillars: Next-Generation Security (NGS) ARR, Prisma Cloud cloud security, and Cortex/XSIAM for security operations. Q4 revenue of $2.19 billion rose 12% year over year, with services growth outpacing hardware, as subscription and support revenues grew 23% and 10%, respectively. NGS ARR closed at $4.22 billion, up 43% year over year, contributing to a year-end ARR base that now exceeds $4.0 billion—well on the way to the company’s long-term objective of a $15 billion NGS ARR by FY2030. RPO grew 20% to $12.7 billion, signaling durable, long-term revenue visibility, while billings beat the high end of guidance, aided by multiyear enterprise deals and enhanced platformization economics.
Management highlighted platformization as the primary growth engine, noting more than 1,000 platformizations across the 5,000 largest customers exiting FY24, with average ARR per platformization up more than 10% since Q1. This framework underpins a diversified growth trajectory across firewall, SASE, cloud security, and security operations, with AI-enabled offerings (AI Access, AI runtime, and AI security posture management) entering a broader deployment phase. The company also signaled ongoing cash flow strength and balance sheet resilience: operating margins expanded ~320 basis points in FY24 and free cash flow margin approached 39%, supporting substantial free cash flow generation (over $3 billion for the year) and a refreshed buyback authorization of $1 billion. Looking ahead, PANW provided full-year guidance for FY25, targeting NGS ARR of $5.42–$5.47 billion, revenue of $9.10–$9.15 billion, operating margins of 27.5%–28%, non-GAAP EPS of $6.18–$6.31, and free cash flow margin of 37%–38%. While execution in migrating customers to XSIAM and completing the IBM QRadar transition present near-term risks, the company’s platform-centric, cloud-native strategy and AI-enabled security portfolio position PANW to gain share in a rapidly expanding cyber market.