It was a tale of different outcomes today from leading cybersecurity and content delivery network providers, with Cloudlare Inc. shares surging over 20% after hours, Dynatrace Inc. shares falling 8% in regular trading and CyberArk Software Ltd. shares closing up 8%.

For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, Cloudflare reported adjusted net income of 15 cents per share, up from six cents per share in the same quarter, on revenue of $362.5 million, up 32% year-over-year. Both were beats, as analysts were expecting earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $353 million.

Cloudflare also reported record operating cash flow and free cash flow in the quarter, with operating cash flow of $85.4 million, or 24% of total revenue and free cash flow of $50.7 million, or 14% of total revenue. For the full fiscal year 2023, Cloudflare reported adjusted earnings per share of 49 cents, up from 13 cents in 2022, on revenue of $1.297 billion, up 33% year-over-year.

“We had an exceptionally strong fourth quarter. We grew revenue by 32% percent year-over-year, to $362.5, blew away our previous records for new ACV — delivering the highest quarterly growth since 2021 — and signed both our largest new customer win and largest customer renewal ever,” Matthew Prince, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cloudflare, said in the company’s earnings release. “Our pipeline close rates, sales force productivity, average deal size and linearity all improved markedly quarter-over-quarter.”

Prince added, “To close out the year, strength in our business was driven by robust momentum with large customers, significant progress in the public sector and growth in Cloudflare One.”

For its first quarter of 2024, Cloudflare expects adjusted earnings per share of 13 cents on revenue of $372.5 million to $373.5 million. For the full year, the company expects adjusted earnings of 58 to 59 cents on revenue of $1.648 billion to $1.652 billion. The full-year outlook was ahead of the 54 cents expected by analysts, but the revenue outlook was in line at the midpoint with the $1.65 billion expected.

Dynatrace, which, unlike Cloudflare, reported at the beginning of regular trading, reported adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, up from 25 cents per share in the same quarter of last year, on revenue of $365 million, up 23% year-over-year. Annual recurring revenue came in at $1.425 billion, up 23% year-over-year. The three figures were ahead of the 28 cents, $357.6 million and $1.41 billion expected by analysts.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, Dynatrace expects adjusted earnings per share of 26 to 28 cents and revenue of $372 million to $377 million. For its full year, the company expects adjusted earnings per share of $1.16 to 1.18, revenue of $1.422 billion to $1.437 billion and annual recurring revenue of $1.485 billion to $1.495 billion.

The issue with investors was the ARR guidance, with William Blair analyst Jake Roberge saying in a note to clients that “management attributed the (ARR) guidance reduction to incremental prudence related to the timing of the large deals in its pipeline that may take longer to close” and that “while pipeline activity for these deals is strong, Dynatrace is building an extra buffer into its guidance plan to account for the variability in deal closure times.”

The last of the trio, CyberArk, reported adjusted earnings per share of 81 cents in its fiscal fourth quarter, up from 16 cents in the same quarter of last year, on revenue of $223.1 million, up 32% year-over-year. Analysts had expected a more modest 47 cents per share on revenue of $209.72 million.

CyberArk’s strong growth was driven by subscription revenue, which came in at $150.3 million, up 70% year-over-year. The company’s other revenue streams were down, with maintenance and professional services revenue dropping to $64.8 million compared to $66.1 million a year prior and license revenue dropped to $8 million from $14.6 million.

For its full year, CyberArk reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.12 and revenue of $751.9 million, up 27% year-over-year. “Throughout the year, we consistently delivered strong results, including in the fourth quarter where top-line growth accelerated, operating income and cash flow increased and we again beat expectations across all guided metrics,” CyberArk CEO Matt Cohen said in the earnings release.

For its fiscal 2024 first quarter, CyberArk expects adjusted earnings of 21 to 31 cents per share on revenue of $209 million to $215 million. For the full year, the company expects earnings per share of $1.63 to $1.81 on revenue of $920 million to $930 million.

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