Palo Alto Networks Shares Fall Despite Strong Earnings and Analyst Support

Samart Telcoms Public Company Limited, or SAMTEL, announced that Secure Info Company Limited, or SCI, an indirectly held subsidiary through Samart Comtech Company Limited with a 99.99% stake, signed a purchase agreement for equipment and devices for the project to establish a cyber operations center and data backup center, known as the Digital Resilience Center, or DRC, at the SMART PARK Industrial Estate office of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, or IEAT, on September 29, 2026. The total project value is 146.20 million baht, including value-added tax. Delivery is scheduled for completion by April 27, 2027, with payment terms divided into five installments based on completed work progress.

SentinelOne has rolled out general availability of its Wayfinder Threat Hunting for Cloud service, extending coverage to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud and tying the launch directly to its AI-led Singularity Platform. The stock last closed at US$25.80, with a 1-month share price return of 29.78% and a year-to-date share price return of 76.23%. The most followed narrative on SentinelOne pegs fair value at $24.25, leaving the stock modestly above that estimate and 6% overvalued, while the SWS DCF model points the other way, putting shares roughly 6.2% below an estimated future cash flow value of $27.49. Analysts behind the popular narrative use an 8.57% discount rate and assume revenue growth in the high teens with margins eventually moving toward US software averages, even as SentinelOne still reports a loss of $340.1 million on $1.10b of revenue. The company's new Flex licensing model is accelerating multi-product adoption, and expansion beyond endpoint security into cloud security, identity, and data protection, including the Prompt Security acquisition for GenAI risk, is expected to lift average contract value and diversify revenue streams.

Stifel raised its price target on Zscaler Inc to $235 from $200 on Tuesday and maintained its Buy rating, citing the cybersecurity firm's first analyst day since 2021. At the event, Zscaler management outlined its strategy, broader product lineup, go-to-market priorities and mid-term financial model, and made a strong case for both securing AI and using AI to improve security, the analysts said. The biggest surprise was a fiscal 2031 annual recurring revenue target: Zscaler gave a base case of more than $8 billion in ARR, a 17% compound annual growth rate, and an upside case of $10 billion, or 22% growth, on AI tailwinds. Stifel said the base case looked achievable and was in line with fiscal 2027 guidance, while the upside case would require a reacceleration in growth that the brokerage said was possible but not something it was underwriting yet. Profitability targets were largely in line with expectations, with Zscaler guiding to a fiscal 2031 operating margin of 27% to 30% and a free cash flow margin of 29% to 32%, and management reaffirmed its first-quarter and full-year fiscal 2027 targets, which the analysts called a positive after the recent change in chief revenue officer. Stifel said Zscaler may have set a higher bar with the $10 billion target, but it left the event more positive on the company's market opportunity, which management pegged at $220 billion.

CrowdStrike expanded its Google Cloud relationship on September 1, announcing Falcon capabilities designed to protect enterprise AI applications against prompt injection, sensitive-data leakage, and malicious AI activity through Google's Agent Gateway, alongside broader connections between Falcon and Gemini Enterprise. The move follows a fiscal second quarter in which revenue rose 26% year-over-year to approximately $1.47 billion, annual recurring revenue reached approximately $5.84 billion, up 25%, and net new ARR added during the quarter totaled $332.8 million. ARR from customers using Falcon Flex exceeded $2.29 billion, up 101% from a year earlier, while operating cash flow increased to $530.3 million from $332.8 million and free cash flow rose to $377.4 million from $283.6 million. Management raised its full-year fiscal 2027 net new ARR growth outlook to 34% at the midpoint. Jim Cramer highlighted CrowdStrike on Mad Money on October 1, noting the stock rallied 39% and that the Charitable Trust owns it, though the company still trades at roughly 210x forward earnings versus 96x for Palo Alto Networks and reported a $33.2 million GAAP operating loss against $371.6 million in non-GAAP operating income. Legal exposure from the July 2024 outage remains unresolved, with discovery ongoing in Delta's lawsuit and the company disclosing requests for information from the Justice Department and SEC concerning revenue recognition, ARR reporting for certain customers, and the outage.

Zscaler reaffirmed its first-quarter and full-year fiscal 2027 financial guidance and outlined a path to $8 billion to $10 billion in annual recurring revenue by fiscal 2031 during its annual Analyst/Investor Day event. In an SEC filing and accompanying press release, the cloud security platform maintained its first-quarter revenue forecast of $935 million to $939 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.15 to $1.16, alongside full-year fiscal 2027 revenue between $3.908 billion and $3.938 billion. The company also reiterated its full-year annual recurring revenue guidance of $4.396 billion to $4.426 billion, representing 16.6% to 17.4% expansion. Chief Executive Officer Jay Chaudhry described agentic AI as the most significant opportunity in the company's history, noting that expanding beyond user security into branch, cloud, and AI agents widened Zscaler's addressable market to $220 billion, with data security annual recurring revenue already topping $400 million. Shares jumped 4.9% in the pre-market session before cooling to $209.76, up 3.9% from the previous close, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite touched all-time highs.

CrowdStrike announced its fourth annual Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator, a global program for startups building the future of cybersecurity for the agentic era, alongside Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA. Applications are open worldwide through Monday, November 2, 2026, with the eight-week program running from Monday, January 11 through Monday, March 8, 2027. New this year, participants get an accelerated path to build with CrowdStrike, including access to Falcon Foundry agent creation, Falcon APIs, opportunities to develop verified integrations, and publication in the CrowdStrike Marketplace, while AWS expands go-to-market support for AWS Partner Network onboarding, technical validation, and AWS Marketplace listings, and NVIDIA Inception provides technical training and developer resources. At the conclusion of the program, up to ten startups will advance to pitch live at RSAC 2027, April 5 to 8, where the 2027 winner will be selected, and outstanding companies may also be considered for investment from the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund. The Accelerator has now supported more than 90 startups globally, with participating companies raising nearly $1 billion in funding and multiple alumni going on to be acquired; last year's winner Jazz more than doubled its book of business, nearly tripled revenue, increased inbound leads 5x, and grew its pipeline 10x, while runner-up Above Security added new customers and received a strategic investment from the Falcon Fund, and fellow cohort member Fabrix Security was acquired by Silverfort.