We recently compiled a list of the Top 12 AI Stocks Taking Wall Street by Storm. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) stands against the other AI stocks.
Is heavy regulation the right approach toward artificial intelligence? According to U.S. Vice President JD Vance, not quite. Instead, Vance is convinced that “massive” regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, rejecting content moderation as “authoritarian censorship”. On a similar note, the US and the UK have declined to sign the final statement of a recently held AI summit that said AI should be inclusive, open, ethical, and safe.
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With the AI arms race in full swing, countries appear to prioritize competition rather than safety and inclusivity. Vance has said that the United States intends to remain the dominant force in AI, strongly opposing the European Union’s strict regulatory approach.
“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry. We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship.”
-Vance told the summit of CEOs and heads of state in Paris, as reported by Reuters.
Vance also noted criticizing the “massive regulations” created by the EU’s Digital Services Act as well as Europe’s online privacy rules. According to him, these rules will only translate to endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.
“Of course, we want to ensure the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation”.
-Vance.
Judging by these discussions and the news that the UK and US have declined to sign the international AI declaration, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has rightly warned that AI is transforming our world already, but its power rests “in the hands of a few”.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A cutting-edge computer lab full of IT experts monitoring the security of multiple systems.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is a leader in AI-powered cybersecurity. On February 12, Baird raised the firm’s price target on the stock to $230 from $218 and kept an “Outperform” rating on the shares. Previewing Q2 results, the firm noted that Palo Alto is expected to report robust Next-Gen Security Annual Recurring Revenue (NGS ARR), likely exceeding guidance. The company defines Next-Generation Security ARR as the annualized allocated revenue of all active contracts as of the final day of the reporting period for its AI-powered Prisma and Cortex offerings.
It also stands to benefit from multi-quarter tailwinds from customer retention and platformization. Additionally, channel checks suggest that the company is gaining market share in key security areas such as SIEM/SecOps and single-vendor SASE adoption. Management’s focus on annual billings, free cash flow stability, and a strategic emphasis on deepening federal agency relationships, further reinforce the buy rating.
Overall PANW ranks 8th on our list of the AI stocks that are taking Wall Street by storm. While we acknowledge the potential of PANW as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PANW but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
