By Nate Wolf

JFrog beat earnings expectations and raised its full-year outlook on Thursday, potentially easing investors' concerns about artificial intelligence disrupting software platforms.

The maker of security and software-development solutions reported adjusted earnings of 27 cents a share for the first quarter, up from 19 cents a year ago. Analysts had forecast 22 cents. Revenue rose 26% from last year to $154 million, above Wall Street's expectations for $147.4 million.

JFrog stock surged 14% in the after-market session.

The company now expects adjusted earnings per share of 93 cents to 97 cents in 2026, up from a previous estimate of 88 cents to 92 cents. It raised its revenue forecast to between $628 million and $632 million from an earlier range of $623 million to $628 million.

The company has been caught up in the pullback in software and cybersecurity stocks in recent months, falling 8.7% in 2026 as of Thursday's close. Some investors fear AI coding and security tools can complete the same functions as existing platforms more cheaply and effectively.

But the market may be growing savvier about distinguishing between companies at risk of disruption and those set to benefit from AI.

"Every company that was built on human interaction with technology, I think they need to kind of recalculate the future," CEO Shlomi Ben Haim told Barron's on Thursday. "Companies that build infrastructure, we will need more of them."

JFrog's focus is building a system of record for companies to manage and secure their binary code -- the machine-readable language underlying software programs. Teams of developers and AI coding agents are creating more software, said Ben Haim, and they need JFrog's infrastructure to handle the resulting binary.

The company's cloud revenue rose 50% year over year to $78.9 million during the first quarter of 2026, driven by demand from customers leveraging AI coding agents, Ben Haim said. Cloud now makes up a majority of the company's revenue, up from 43% last year.

Some of that growth comes from customers' usage of JFrog exceeding their annual commitments. Organizations are becoming more willing than they were a year ago to spend above their commitments, Ben Haim said, though JFrog based its guidance on commitments alone.

The strong earnings report comes a day after a much larger cybersecurity name, Fortinet, posted its own earnings beat. That report helped the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF gain 3.5% Thursday.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2026 17:01 ET (21:01 GMT)

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