Shares in CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. and Zscaler Inc. surged in after-hours trading today after both security companies beat analyst predictions on revenue, earnings and guidance in their quarterly earnings reports.

For the quarter ended Oct. 1, CrowdStrike reported revenue jumped 86% year over year, to $232.5 million. The growth was driven by an 87% increased in subscription revenue to $213.5 million.

Profit before costs such as stock compensation came in at eight cents a share, reversing a loss of 7 cents in the same quarter last year. Analysts had been predicting it to break even on revenue of $213.7 million.

Highlights in the quarter included CrowdStrike acquiring 1,186 net new subscription customers, including 64 from its acquisition of Preempt Security Inc. for $96 million in September. The company also expanded support for Amazon Web Services Inc. with integrations to the computer services and cloud services category.

For the quarter ahead, CrowdStrike predicted adjusted profit per share of eight to nine cents on revenue of $245.5 million to $250.5 million. Analysts had been predicting a profit of a penny cent a share on revenue of $231.4 million. Revised fiscal-year 2021 guidance has an adjusted profit of 21 to 22 cents a share on revenue of $855 million to $860 million.

Zscaler followed in CrowdStrike’s footsteps with strong growth as well. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Zscaler booked an adjusted profit of 14 cents a share on $142.6 million in revenue, up 52% year-over-year. Analysts had been predicting six cents a share on $132.4 million in revenue.

Similar to its previous quarter, much of Zscaler’s growth has been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the switch to remote working. “Our customers are accelerating their digital transformation and this drove our strong first-quarter results,” Jay Chaudhry, chairman and chief executive officer of Zscaler, said in a statement.

For the quarter ahead, Zscaler is predicting revenue of $146 million to $148 million and adjust earnings per share of seven to eight cents. Analyst had estimated seven cents a share on $140.3 million in revenue. For Zscaler’s full fiscal year 2021, the company is now predicting a profit of 37 to 38 cents a share on revenue of $608 million to $612 million.

Investors like what they saw from both CrowdStrike and Zscaler, with the share prices in both companies rising by similar amounts. CrowdStrike rose almost 14% in Thursday’s trading, while Zscaler’s shares shot up more than 26%.

Zscaler’s Chaudhry spoke to SiliconANGLE theCUBE in July 2019 on how his company transforms information technology security from “castle and moat” to direct access via the cloud:

Image: CrowdStrike