Cybersecurity is an excellent place for investors to park some of their money for the long term. While the stocks within the industry may experience various ups and downs with the market, the businesses will likely be OK, as few customers are willing to cut their cybersecurity subscriptions just to save a few dollars.
Furthermore, cyber threats will only increase, so maintaining a top-notch security platform is critical. So if you want to invest in cybersecurity companies, take a look at this list for a few to keep on your radar.
1. CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike (CRWD 2.03%) is a leader in the cybersecurity space and is a cloud-first platform. Its primary product is endpoint security, which protects network access points like a laptop or phone from external threats. However, CrowdStrike has more than 20 other products that can be added to its base product to provide a more robust solution for its clients.
Even in a more challenging sales environment, CrowdStrike has seen robust growth, with its annual recurring revenue rising 42% year over year in Q1 of FY 2024 (ending April 30). Furthermore, CrowdStrike is a free-cash-flow (FCF) generating machine and produced $116 million in Q1, equating to a 33% margin. It also produced its first profit in Q1, showing investors that management is serious about becoming profitable.
Wall Street analysts expect strong growth for the rest of FY 2024 and FY 2025, with revenue projected to rise 35% and 29%, respectively. With that much growth on the table, CrowdStrike remains a top pick in the cybersecurity space.
Additionally, the stock is trading around 15 times sales. While that's not cheap, it is less than many of its software peers, and it's also below where CrowdStrike has traded around for most of its time on the public markets. CrowdStrike makes an excellent stock for investors to buy and watch grow over the next decade. It's already one of my top positions, and I think other investors will benefit from CrowdStrike's rise.
2. Alphabet
Most people wouldn't consider Alphabet (GOOG 9.96%) (GOOGL 10.22%) a cybersecurity company. It generates a vast majority of its revenue from advertising services, so what is it doing on a list of cybersecurity stocks?
In September 2022, Alphabet closed its acquisition of Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm formerly known as FireEye. This is a key product for Alphabet's cloud computing product, Google Cloud. With Mandiant's threat intelligence capabilities, Google Cloud can offer a full cybersecurity product line that can secure customers both on the cloud and on-premise.
Although Google Cloud only makes up about 9% of Alphabet's revenue currently, it can potentially blossom into a much more significant part of the business. A few estimates on cloud computing's market size peg the industry opportunity between $1.6 trillion and $2.4 trillion by 2030. Without a secure offering, Google Cloud would quickly fall behind its competition.
Alphabet's stock is also reasonably priced, as it trades for about 23 times forward earnings, which is much lower than the company has historically traded at.
GOOGL PE Ratio data by YCharts
With cloud computing expected to be a major catalyst over the next decade, Alphabet makes a great investment, even though its cybersecurity component is relatively small. By investing a portion of your portfolio in Alphabet stock today, you likely won't be disappointed in the results over the next few years.
