Palo Alto's city workers may soon get a new perk: the ability to enroll their children in local schools.

The city and the Palo Alto Unified School District are currently discussing the idea of opening district schools to children of city employees, an idea that the district board of trustees is slated to discuss in March. It is one of numerous ideas that has been discussed in latest months by the school district's Enrollment Trends and Options Committee, which is charged with assessing options for boosting the district's declining enrollment.

According to state data, the school district's student population has dropped from 11,745 in 2020 to 10,754 in 2021 to 10,509 in 2022.

City Manager Ed Shikada described the new program during the Thursday morning meeting of the City/School Liaison Committee, which includes elected representatives from the City Council and the school board. He said he anticipates having city officials testify in support of this concept, which he said is "in the interest of both organizations and the community at large."

"If there are slots available, we have potential for city employees to fill those slots and, in so doing, increase or Strengthen the connection between our employees and the communities they serve," Shikada said. "As well as having the benefits, to the extent these employees are commuting to town, in having the flexibility to which schools their children would attend."

Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines, who represents the city on the enrollment committee, said that the city has already surveyed its employees to see if they'd be interested in sending their children to local schools. Based on the survey responses, the city expects the program to add between 50 and 100 students to the school district.

The idea of adding children of city employees to local schools is part of a package of options that the enrollment committee has been considering. According to notes from its final meeting, which took place on Jan. 10, other options include expanding the district's boundaries, increasing its language immersion programs, adding learning centers at each site and having more "theme schools."

The district already has one "theme school" in the works, with Fletcher Middle School agreeing last fall to institute a focus on sustainability. With the new focus, Fletcher would be open to applications from students who would normally be assigned to Greene and Jane Lathrop Stanford schools, each of which has a higher student population than Fletcher.

School board member Todd Collins, who served on the enrollment committee, stressed that the number of new students that the new program for city employees would generate is relatively small.

"The main thing is that we realize that it's a very moderate number of people that we're talking about, which I think helps dimensionalize the conversation," Collins said.

• Garbage pickup: Regular collection service will be maintained.

Transportation

• Caltrain: Caltrain will operate on a modified schedule on Monday. For more information, visit caltrain.com.

• SamTrans: SamTrans will operate on a regular, nonschool day schedule for the holiday. Bus routes that primarily serve local schools won't operate.  The administrative offices of the San Mateo County Transit District, which manages SamTrans, will be open for the holiday. The Customer Service Center will operate with normal hours, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, visit samtrans.com.

• Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority: The VTA will operate as usual, but the office will be closed. For more information, visit vta.org.

Schools

• Palo Alto Unified School District: Schools will be closed on Monday.

Federal, state offices

• U.S. Postal Service: Post offices will be closed. Regular mail will not be delivered.

February 17, 2023, 06:37 PM EST

Partners report that major growth in their business with Palo Alto Networks continues despite the economic turbulence.

Wall Street analysts are expecting another quarter of “strong” financial results from cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks, as the company continues to distinguish itself from its traditional competitors in network security in areas such as secure access service edge (SASE) and cloud security.

Palo Alto Networks will report results for its fiscal second quarter of 2023, ended Jan. 31, on Tuesday.

[Related: 10 Hot XDR Security Companies You Should Watch In 2023]

For the company and its CEO Nikesh Arora, the expansion in latest years to acquire numerous startups and build out a broad security platform — covering key emerging areas such as SASE, cloud and application security, and extended detection and response (XDR) — would appear to be paying off in a big way as customers look to consolidate their security vendors during the current challenging economic conditions.

In an earnings preview note, KeyBanc analysts wrote that Palo Alto Networks’ “relative bookings strength, based on our checks, stands out” when compared to the “mixed” quarterly results that were recently shared by peer vendors Fortinet and Check Point.

“Of the three, we see Palo as best positioned in cloud/software security—SASE, endpoint, cloud security, analytics, application security,” the KeyBanc analysts wrote.

Notably, “all partners we spoke to were on or above plan on bookings and billings bases,” the analysts wrote.

Cleveland-based Advizex, No. 104 on the 2022 CRN Solution Provider 500, is expecting significant revenue growth from its Palo Alto Networks business this year, CTO Chris Miller said. That’s thanks both to the company’s flagship next-generation firewalls and the vendor’s newer solutions, such as zero trust network access (ZTNA), according to Miller.

ZTNA is considered a more-secure remote access solution compared to VPNs, and for Palo Alto Networks it’s available as part of the company’s Prisma SASE and Prisma Access offerings. The company offers endpoint detection and response (EDR) along with XDR and an “autonomous” security operations solution through its Cortex platform, meanwhile.

Shaul Eyal, managing director at Cowen, wrote in a note to investors that Palo Alto Networks’ “broad and deep product portfolio positions it well in a market characterized by vendor consolidation.” Additionally, the company’s prior-quarter results “demonstrated that the company is executing efficiently,” he wrote.

For Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal first quarter of 2023, which ended Oct. 31, 2022, revenue and earnings both beat Wall Street analyst forecasts, and the company raised its guidance. The results included revenue growth of 25 percent, year-over-year, to reach $1.56 billion.

Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, also said in a note to investors that he is “expecting a strong quarter next week” from Palo Alto Networks.

“Despite an uncertain macro [environment] we are seeing strong deal activity across the board with cloud-influenced enterprise-wide deals the theme of the quarter,” Ives wrote.

Palo Alto Networks’ stock price closed at $169.28 a share in regular trading Friday, which is up nearly 20 percent from Jan. 3, the first day of trading in 2023, when its stock price opened at $141.32 a share.

Leading cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is scheduled to report its FQ2'23 earnings results (for CQ ended January 2023) on February 21.

Savvy investors picked PANW's bottom in early January, following the risk-on sentiment that returned to tech stocks. Accordingly, PANW has recovered nearly 35% from its January lows toward this week's highs.

Therefore, we believe investors have likely anticipated an optimistic earnings report from Palo Alto Networks, expecting it to maintain or surpass its FY23 guidance.

As a reminder, the company guided FY23 revenue growth of 25.5% at the midpoint, just slightly above the consensus estimates of 25.2% growth. Moreover, the company's guidance range of 25% to 26% suggests that Palo Alto has tremendous revenue visibility, despite the worsening macro headwinds.

Therefore, the company's ability to navigate highly challenging economic conditions where sales cycles are expected to remain elongated should not be understated.

Keen investors should know that Palo Alto Networks has a broad cybersecurity portfolio encompassing capabilities in SASE, cloud security (including zero-trust), and endpoint security with XDR.

Hence, it's well-placed to protect on-premise and cloud-based workloads, particularly effective for companies with multi/hybrid cloud architecture. While the company's next-gen solutions, such as cloud security, are expected to drive its top-line growth, its legacy solutions provide the customer base and broader adoption opportunities.

Hence, Palo Alto Networks could be in a much better position than pure-play cloud peers to leverage the trend toward vendor consolidation, spurred by worse macro headwinds forcing CISOs toward cost optimization.

Moreover, Palo Alto Networks believes it has the next-gen zero trust solution or ZTNA 2.0, which is expected to integrate its customers' hybrid workplace environment better.

Therefore, we aren't surprised that PANW has seen firm buying support at significant dips. In addition, astute investors likely capitalized to add more positions, as the increased need for cybersecurity will not disappear.

Moreover, Palo Alto Networks is confident that its AI/ML capabilities "will help predict and resolve issues before they cause business disruptions."

Accordingly, CEO Nikesh Arora reminded investors that he started to infuse artificial intelligence into Palo Alto Network's offerings when he started more than four years ago. Arora stressed:

Our entire AI capability is centered around everything we're doing in Cortex [XDR]. Security needs to become real-time. You can't do anything [in] real-time unless you have good data. So we spent the last 4.5 years figuring out how to get good data, which is why we [launched] the products 12 weeks called Cortex XSIAM. The whole notion there is you collect all the data you can. You run AI models against it and try and remediate secured. Expanse is one aspect of it. It is the aspect, which looks at data, which you can see from the outside in. And Cortex XSIAM looks at it from [the] inside out. So I think, yes, AI is going to have a huge impact on how real-time security is deployed. (Barclays Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference)

We think there should be little doubt that Palo Alto is a clear leader in the cybersecurity space. Hence, the question about its growth valuation has consistently attracted debate with bulls and bears on whether PANW deserves its premium.

PANW last traded at an NTM EBITDA multiple of 29.6x, below its 10Y average of 36.7x (20% below). However, PANW has had difficulty sustaining its valuation above its 10Y average since its peak in early 2022, suggesting the market had likely de-rated it.

Hence, we believe some prudence is justified by demanding a significant discount below its 10Y average for an improved reward-to-risk entry.

Given the high valuations of cybersecurity stocks, we also don't encourage investors to load their portfolios with too many cybersecurity companies to mitigate valuation compression risks.

Despite that, We have confidence that Palo Alto's consistent free cash flow (FCF) profitability and robust ARR visibility position it as one of the prime candidates for investors to consider carefully.

However, the question remains: Is the current price action and valuation constructive for investors looking for a less risky entry zone?

As seen above, PANW has surged well above its January lows but is still in a medium-term downtrend, resisted by its November 2022 highs.

So, PANW investors need to consider whether they think its January bottom is robust enough to sustain its bear market lows before recovering its upward bias?

We noted that PANW's January lows corresponded to an NTM EBITDA multiple of 22x, in line with the one standard deviation zone under its 10Y average. In other words, it was relatively attractive compared to its historical valuation averages.

We also noted a bullish reversal price action in January, predicated against a false downside breakdown (or bear trap) against the lows in May 2022. In other words, market operators likely used highly pessimistic sentiment at the start of January to lead weak PANW holders to sell low. However, the "attempt" to break below May 2022 lows was firmly rejected before staging a stunning bullish reversal to shift its momentum back up.

Hence, we believe PANW's January lows should hold robustly. Therefore, investors considering adding exposure should capitalize on any subsequent pullback (hopefully weak earnings outlook).

Rating: Hold (Reiterated).

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 04:00:00 -0600 en text/html https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/palo-alto-a-history-of-california-capitalism-and-the-world/article_3d9c8c7e-aca2-11ed-9d2a-6b06b2ce05ba.html

A 1,724-square-foot house built in 1930 has changed hands. The property located in the 3800 block of El Centro Street in Palo Alto was sold on Jan. 27, 2023 for $2,004,000, or $1,162 per square foot. The property features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage, and one parking space. It sits on a 9,375-square-foot lot, which also has a pool.

These nearby houses have also recently been purchased:

• On La Para Avenue, Palo Alto, in June 2022, a 1,881-square-foot home was sold for $3,250,000, a price per square foot of $1,728. The home has 3 bedrooms and 1 bathrooms.
• A 1,487-square-foot home on the 800 block of La Para Avenue in Palo Alto sold in September 2022 for $2,430,000, a price per square foot of $1,634. The home has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathrooms.
• In October 2022, a 3,411-square-foot home on La Para Avenue in Palo Alto sold for $5,700,000, a price per square foot of $1,671. The home has 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.

This article was generated by the Bay Area News Group Bot, software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a template created by humans. Our real estate data comes from public records that have been registered and digitized by local county offices. You can report errors or bugs to content@bayareanewsgroup.com.