Shares of SentinelOne (S 2.10%) surged 29.6% in August, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The new-age cybersecurity stock just went public on June 30, but has clearly already made a big impression.
Although there wasn't any specific news coming out of the company in August (second quarter earnings are set to come out on Wednesday, Sept. 8), high-profile cyberattacks were once again in the news, helping to drive sentiment higher for SentinelOne's modern capabilities. The company also got a big vote of confidence from a prominent hedge fund manager, who is also a large investor in this exciting company.
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So what
Like its main competitor, CrowdStrike (CRWD 2.30%), SentinalOne's Singularity platform uses big data and artificial intelligence (AI) models to anticipate and thwart cyberattacks in a modern, automated way. New age, software-defined solutions like SentinelOne and CrowdStrike are taking market share in the endpoint security market in a big way from legacy vendors.
One of SentinelOne's biggest investors is Dan Loeb's Third Point Management, a hedge fund that invested in SentinelOne when it was just a small start-up and now owns over 10% of the company. In his second-quarter letter to investors, Loeb wrote:
SentinelOne's next generation, AI-powered autonomous security product for the endpoint market continues to take share from legacy incumbents such as Symantec and McAfee. Its technology compares favorably to its most relevant next-gen endpoint protection competitor, Crowdstrike, in an environment where cybersecurity has become an essential enterprise need, highlighted by frequent, well-publicized attacks."
August also brought even more high-profile cyberattacks. U.S. telecom giant T-Mobile was hacked, with 54 million customer records compromised. August also saw a high-profile cybersecurity meeting between the Biden administration and the heads of most of the country's largest technology companies, as the administration seeks to strengthen the nation's cyberdefenses more broadly as a key strategic priority.
Greater attention to cyberthreats in August was enough to light a fire under SentinalOne's stock, which now sits at nearly double its IPO price.
Now what
When SentinelOne reports second-quarter earnings on Sept. 8, expectations will clearly be very high, as the stock has already reached a $17.7 billion market cap on just $161 million in average recurring revenue.
However, that revenue is also growing by over 100%, and should continue that strong trend as long as SentinelOne maintains its strong market position and cyberthreats continue in the global economy. I don't see that changing soon, so it's definitely a growth stock to watch.
