5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Now

1. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 85

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) has gained 37.88% year to date, as of March 22. This February, RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg raised his price target on Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) to $216 from $200 and maintained an Outperform rating on the shares.

On February 21, Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) announced market-beating earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The company reported an EPS of $1.05 and outperformed EPS estimates by $0.27. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) generated a revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, up 25.68% year over year and ahead of Wall Street consensus by $5.58 million.

At the end of Q4 2022, 85 hedge funds were long Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) and disclosed positions worth $3.27 billion in the company. Of those, Citadel Investment Group was the leading investor in the company and held a stake worth $363.7 million. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) is the best cybersecurity stock to buy now according to analysts and hedge funds.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments had to say about Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“Stock selection within the IT sector was the main detractor from relative performance during the period. In addition to rate hikes compressing the multiples of longerduration, high growth companies, recession concerns were also a headwind. IT companies which had proven resilient against customer budget reductions earlier in the year are starting to feel the impact of spending slowdowns as companies further scrutinize expenses in light of economic uncertainty. For example, Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW), which provides enterprise security solutions including next-generation firewalls and threat detection software, faced a challenging environment as customers delayed purchases and orders. However, we remain convinced of the company’s long-term growth prospects as an industry leader in a critical field and as digital attacks and ransomware continue to grow.”

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