Honeywell To Buy Nextnine To Boost Cyber Security Business

Industrial goods manufacturer Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) recently inked a definitive agreement to acquire Nextnine, a privately held security management solutions provider for industrial cyber security, for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is likely to augment Honeywell’s cyber security portfolio with complementary products and services.

Since its inception in 1998, Nextnine has created a niche market for cyber security services with its innovative products and technology solutions. The company is particularly known for ICS Shield, a flagship technology that secures remote service capabilities. It is reportedly used in over 6,200 sites across the globe in diverse sectors such as the oil and gas, utility, chemical, mining and manufacturing.

ICS Shield was typically deployed separately for each control system vendor, which led to multiple and separate installations at a single customer site. The acquisition will enable customers to deploy and operate a single system by leveraging Honeywell's proven capability to provide multi-vendor solutions. This, in turn, will simplify the entire site, thereby augmenting its security features.

Nextnine’s comprehensive portfolio will also be utilized in Honeywell Connected Plant that facilitates connected plant operations to improve plant availability, safety and reliability quotients. It takes advantage of streaming data from sensors and devices to quickly assess current conditions, recognize warning signs, deliver alerts and automatically trigger actions, based on analytics solutions. The acquisition, therefore, is likely to transform client operations to make it more reliable, profitable and secure.

Honeywell reportedly has the largest industrial cyber security research capabilities in the industry. The company has hi-tech solutions to fortify clients against cyber threats. Two such solutions include Risk Manager – the industry's first solution to proactively monitor, measure and manage industrial cyber security risks – and Secure Media Exchange, which protects plants against threats from removable media such as USB flash drives.

With such state-of-the-art products, Honeywell aims to gain a competitive edge over its rivals and augment its revenues. The company has outperformed the Diversified Operations industry with an average year-to-date return of 15.0% compared with a paltry 3.3% gain for the latter. We remain impressed with the inherent growth potential of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. Some better-ranked stocks in the industry include 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) , Bunzl (LON:BNZL) plc (OTC:BZLFY) and Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE:FSS) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

3M has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 9.7%. It surpassed estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 1.3%.

Bunzl has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 7.5%.

Federal Signal surpassed estimates twice in the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 3.1%

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