Palo Alto Networks Inc. is growing fast as enterprises place more emphasis on cybersecurity, and it showed today as it delivered impressive third-quarter financial results and raised its outlook.

The company reported a profit before certain costs such as stock compensation of $1.38 per share on revenue of $1.1 billion, up 24% from a year ago. That was better than expected, with analysts having forecast a profit of $1.28 per share on revenue of $1.06 billion.

The report sent the company’s stock up more than 5% in after-hours trading.

Palo Alto Networks sells an enterprise cybersecurity platform that includes both hardware and software products designed to secure networks, clouds, endpoints and other information technology infrastructure.

Chief Executive Nikesh Arora (pictured) explained the company’s strong performance was thanks to enterprises placing greater importance on security at a time when remote working has become more common. He said companies are also concerned by high-profile cybersecurity incidents such as the recent SolarWinds hack.

In a call with analysts, Arora said that the heightened cybersecurity considerations means that customers are happy to pay more for Palo Alto’s products, which are often seen as more expensive than those of its competitors.

“Coupled with good execution, this has driven great strength across our business with Q3 billings growth accelerating to 27% year over year,” Arora said. “We are pleased to be raising our guidance for fiscal year 2021 as we see these trends continuing into our fiscal fourth quarter, bolstering our confidence in our pipeline.”

Palo Alto Networks has been a rising star for some time already, and recently named as one of four “four-star security vendors” by Dave Vellante, chief analyst at SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon, in a report earlier this year.

Its numbers this quarter certainly help to justify that claim. Billings, which is the amount of cash the company has invoiced and is due for payment shortly, came to $1.3 billion. And the company’s deferred revenue jumped 30% from a year ago, to $4.4 billion.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE that the real secret to Palo Alto Network’s success is the way it has moved away from its reliance on traditional product sales to subscription and support-based revenue stream, which is more consistent and predictable. “Fueled by the security demands of an economy working largely from home, the company is seeing lots of demand for its cybersecurity offerings,” Mueller said.

However, the analyst said the company still faces a lot of hard work before it can become profitable. “It is great to see the commitment to R&D, which got the biggest investment boost, but its overall losses almost doubled despite its nine-month revenue gaining almost $500 million from a year ago,” he said. “Better cost management will be key in the coming quarters.”

During the quarter, Palo Alto Networks closed on its acquisition of DevOps security startup Bridgecrew, whose tools enable security to be built into applications earlier.

For the fourth quarter, Palo Alto Networks said it’s expecting earnings of $1.42 to $1.44 per share on revenue of $1.165 billion to $1.175 billion. That’s just above Wall Street’s forecast of $1.42 per share in earnings and $1.16 billion in revenue.

For the full year, the company now sees total revenue of between $4.20 billion and $4.21 billion, which would amount to growth of 23% to 24%. Wall Street had previously forecast full-year revenue of $4.18 billion.

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