The age of AI is making cybersecurity players indispensable for enterprises and individuals alike. With hacks, identity theft and other cybercrimes running rampant, companies and enterprises simply cannot afford to go without robust cybersecurity budgets. It was not that long ago that Wall Street feared AI leaders might take away some of the cybersecurity operators’ revenues, but now the investing community has realized that cyber-stocks have their place.
As August rolls on, Wall Street has been raising its price targets and expectations for key cybersecurity stocks in August. Some fresh analyst reports from August 18 were also preceded by several other analysts raising their price targets for cybersecurity leaders.
Be advised that all analyst ratings and price targets mentioned in this reporting have been sourced to each firm which issued the reports. Oggonomics does not issue formal ratings and price targets of its own for individual stocks. These are the top cybersecurity analyst calls.
And, don’t forget about the ETFs… The First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR) has nearly $16 billion in assets under management and it was up 37% YTD and up 35% over the last year. The Amplify Cybersecurity ETF (HACK) with $3 billion in assets under management was last seen with a gain of 43.8% YTD and a gain of 39% from a year ago.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is now the king of cybersecurity stocks, and with its shares last seen at $375 it had a $306 billion market cap. Remember when AI was going to crush their business and shares spooked many investors? That’s no longer the case. Here are the analyst calls seen in the last week:
- 8/17 — TD Cowen reiterated Buy and target raised to $400 from $360.
- 8/17 — Wells Fargo reiterated Overweight and target raised to $475 from $420.
- 8/14 — RBC reiterated Outperform and target raised to $434 from $330.
- 8/12 — Citizens reiterated Outperform and target raised to $415 from $320.
BofA also raised its price objectives for CrowdStrike (CRWD) while previewing its Q2-2027 earnings report due on August 26. CrowdStrike is rated as Neutral with a $230 price objective (versus $213.90 prior close). Barclays also reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its CrowdStrike price target to $235 from $169 on August 18. Two other ratings updates were seen on August 17:
- TD Cowen reiterated Buy and raised target to $235 from $175.
- Wells Fargo reiterated Overweight and raised target to $230 from $181.
SentinelOne (S) was reiterated with a Buy rating and BofA raised its price objective to $26 from $22, noting that its platform strategy continues to gain traction. SentinelOne previously closed at $21.82, and it has seen several price target adjustments in recent days:
- Oppenheimer reiterated Outperform and target raised to $27 from $21.
- Wells Fargo maintained Equal Weight and raised target to $22 from $16.
- TD Cowen reiterated Buy and raised target to $25 from $22.
Zscaler (ZS) was reiterated with a Buy rating at BofA and the firm raised its price objective to $210 from $175, noting that Zero Trust and AI are driving continued platform adoption. Zscaler previously closed at $184.44. On August 17, two other firms also raised Zscaler’s price targets:
- Wells Fargo reiterated Overweight and raised its target to $210 from $180.
- TD Cowen reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $200 from $180.
BofA reiterated its Neutral rating on SailPoint (SAIL), but the firm still raised its price objective to $19 from $16. The firm noted that identity management expands into the agent era. Despite a Neutral rating, BofA noted that SailPoint is well positioned to benefit from increasing demand for IGA solutions that help organizations manage access, maintain compliance, and reduce identity related risk.
