Palo Alto Networks
PANW
on Tuesday announced that it has completed the acquisition of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel-based company, Cider Security. The companies had entered into an agreement last month wherein Palo Alto Networks agreed to buy Cider Security for $195 million in cash, excluding the value of replacement equity awards.
Cider Security provides application security (AppSec) and software supply-chain security solutions, which offer continuous integration/continuous delivery platforms from a single place. These allow IT teams to build AppSec programs more securely. Thus, Cider Security platforms help bridge the gap between security and the engineering of applications.
Cider Buyout to Boost Prisma Cloud Capabilities
The Prisma Cloud platform brings all of Palo Alto’s cloud security solutions under one umbrella to meet the need for end-to-end networking and security solutions. This enables enterprises to better focus on business growth without worrying about security loopholes in the system.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. Price and Consensus
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. price-consensus-chart
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Palo Alto Networks, Inc. Quote
With the Cider Security acquisition, Palo Alto will fortify its Prisma Cloud platform capabilities. These will also help developers get security assessments throughout the entire application security lifecycle, from code to the cloud.
Palo Alto Networks has been continuously focusing on strengthening the Prisma Cloud platform’s comprehensive cloud security capabilities through acquisitions and the addition of new tools and features. In October, the company added software composition analysis tools to Prisma Cloud.
By combining Cider Security’s solutions with the newly launched software composition analysis tools, Prisma Cloud will now offer the industry’s most comprehensive supply-chain security solution as part of its code-to-cloud security platform.
Last year, the company had acquired Bridgecrew. The acquisition not only strengthened the Prisma Cloud platform’s comprehensive cloud security capabilities but also made PANW the first company to provide end-to-end security across the full application lifecycle.
Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, said, “Cider’s technology provides deep visibility and analysis of the tools and processes that are being used throughout the application development lifecycle, resulting in the ability to identify and remediate critical risks at every step. This is consistent with Prisma Cloud’s shift left security strategy, as we continue offering innovative solutions that help protect our customers from emerging threats.”
Acquisitions Driving Growth
Palo Alto’s strategy of undertaking acquisitions to boost growth is long documented. The company has made 18 acquisitions, with investments of more than $3.5 billion.
These buyouts have helped Palo Alto expand its product portfolio and customer base, thereby bringing in incremental revenues. Markedly, it has registered stellar double-digit revenue growth in the trailing six years.
In the first-quarter fiscal 2023 earnings release, Palo Alto’s revenues soared 25% year over year to $1.56 billion. The company has a cash-healthy balance sheet, which enables it to pursue acquisitions. Despite so many acquisitions, the company had cash and investments of nearly $3.8 billion as of Oct 31, 2022.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Currently, Palo Alto carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of PANW have decreased 19.6% year to date (YTD).
Some better-ranked stocks from the broader technology sector are
Celestica
CLS
,
Zscaler
ZS
and
Blackbaud
BLKB
. Celestica sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, while Zscaler and Blackbaud each carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here
.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Celestica’s fourth-quarter 2022 earnings has increased by 9 cents to 53 cents per share over the past 60 days. For 2022, earnings estimates have moved up 9.4% to $1.86 per share in the past 60 days.
CLS’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 11.8%. Shares of the company have decreased 2.7% YTD.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Zscaler’s second-quarter fiscal 2023 earnings has been revised 3 cents upward to 29 cents per share over the past 30 days. For fiscal 2023, earnings estimates have moved up by 6 cents to $1.23 per share in the past 30 days.
ZS’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 27.3%. Shares of the company have declined 65.1% YTD.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Blackbaud’s fourth-quarter 2022 earnings has been revised southward by 3 cents to 58 cents per share over the past 60 days. For 2022, earnings estimates have moved upward by 4 cents to $2.59 per share in the past 60 days.
Blackbaud’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate thrice in the preceding four quarters while missing the same on one occasion, the average surprise being 4.9%. Shares of BLKB have slumped 28.4% YTD.
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