If you’re looking for a tech-centric industry that might offer the most upside in the market at this time, cybersecurity stocks are a great choice. A lot of this has to do with the fact that almost every company in the world needs some form of protection from hackers and data breaches, especially when you consider the fact that the average total cost of a data breach amounts to $3.86 million.
Most businesses simply cannot afford to deal with the damage control associated with a cybersecurity compromise, which means there are going to be plenty of long-term winners to come out of the cybersecurity industry going forward.
Keep in mind that remote workers are the perfect targets for cybercriminals and that many companies are investing in cloud data assets that will also need to be protected. There’s also the fact that the Biden Administration is taking this issue seriously by announcing ambitious initiatives to bolster the Nation’s cybersecurity capabilities.
With so many reasons to be bullish about this industry, it makes sense to start adding shares of the best names in the space. That’s why we’ve put together a list of 3 cutting-edge cybersecurity stocks to buy now. Keep reading below to learn more.
1. Palo Alto Networks
The bigger the company or organization, the more data that needs to be protected. This is a great reason why Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW) is a strong option in the cybersecurity space, as it’s a major provider of internet security solutions for enterprise customers. Palo Alto’s platform allows enterprises, service providers, and government entities to keep their organizations safe from cyber attacks by using a traffic classification engine. This provides visibility into all of the traffic and all applications at the user level so that companies can control usage, content, risk, and cyber threats.
Palo Alto’s products are trusted by the best to provide client data security, including Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Azure (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alibaba Cloud (NYSE:BABA), and Google Cloud Platform (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which are the four biggest cloud service providers in the world.
The company just reported incredibly strong earnings numbers that sent the stock to all-time highs, which included Q4 revenue growth of 28% year-over-year to $1.2 billion. It’s also great to see that Palo Alto Networks is expanding its product offerings with R&D spending and new acquisitions, and if the company can find success with high growth areas like machine learning and analytics it could lead to even more earnings upside over the long term.
2. Cloudflare
This growth stock has been a true standout over the last year and has rallied over 60% year-to-date, yet with trends such as more companies moving towards cloud computing, the rise of 5G networks, and the increasing prevalence of the Internet of Things (IoT), there is likely even more growth for this company ahead.
Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) is a provider of cloud-based network services that protect internet applications and help them to run faster and is particularly interesting to businesses since they don’t have to add hardware, install new software, or change code to improve performance. Internet properties that are powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request and leads to huge improvements in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks.
The company recently hit a major milestone by obtaining FedRAMP approval that will allow more federal agencies to adopt the company’s solutions to build a more secure and resilient infrastructure. Cloudflare already provides security, performance, and reliability services to several major government agencies including the FBI, the U.S. Department of State, and the Library of Congress, which is a testament to this company’s strength.
Cloudflare’s services are also extremely useful to enterprise-level customers, and the company added 140 large customers in Q4. Finally, the fact that the company continues to deliver strong top-line growth, including Q2 total revenue of $152.4 million, up 53% year-over-year, makes this stock truly stand out.
3. Cyberark Software Ltd
This Israel-based provider of information technology security solutions is another cutting-edge name to explore in cybersecurity, particularly since the company’s software solutions are focused on protecting privileged accounts.
If you aren’t familiar with that term, a privileged account provides administrative or specialized levels of access to enterprise systems and sensitive data, so they are naturally a big target for cyber attacks. The privileged access management market is a niche market, which means Cyberark Software Ltd (NASDAQ:CYBR) doesn’t necessarily have to compete toe-to-toe with some of the bigger names in cybersecurity.
The company has over 7,000 global customers and serves more than 50% of the Fortune 500, which is why it's surprising that Cyberark doesn’t attract more attention from investors. It’s another great example of a company seizing the moment as these types of solutions gain traction in the business world, and the company saw its ARR grow by 35% year-over-year in Q2 to reach $315 million.
The stock is trading around its all-time high and could be heading for $200 in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on dips in Cyberark for lower-risk entries.