Today's first-quarter earnings marked the sixth quarter in a row that Palo Alto Networks has reported year-over-year revenue growth of 50 percent or more.

Revenues for the quarter ended Oct. 31 were $297.2 million, up 55 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

For its second quarter, Palo Alto expects revenues of $314 million to $318 million. That comes out to 44 to 46 percent year-over-year growth, but it might just be a conservative estimate. Last quarter, Palo Alto put up a similar prediction, percentage-wise, and blew it away.

Palo Alto Networks still isn't profitable on a GAAP basis. First-quarter GAAP net losses were $38.7 million, or 45 cents per share. For the same quarter a year ago, Palo Alto Networks reported revenues of $192.3 million and losses of $30.1 million, or 38 cents per share.

Non-GAAP profits of 35 cents per share beat the analysts' estimate of 32 cents, according to Thomson Financial Network.

The company's growth has come partly from providing next-generation products at a time when customers' security demands are becoming more advanced. Customers want a new generation of technology: They're looking toward platforms rather than point products, and their security plans focus more on prevention than on reacting to breaches, CEO Mark McLaughlin said on today's earnings call.

"Other players can ring two of those bells, but nobody else is ringing all three of them," he said.

So while Palo Alto has benefited from an overall increase in security spending, it's also able to wrest business away from incumbent vendors, particularly Check Point and Cisco, McLaughlin said. Boasts of seven-figure wins against both vendors have become a staple of Palo Alto's earnings calls.

Palo Alto shares were up 3.5 percent at $178 in after-hours trading.