The 5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today

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Cybersecurity stocks are all the rage in 2015, and for good reason. They’re growing at breakneck speeds, and with many of them coming fresh off of impressive earnings beats, they’ve gotten Wall Street’s attention.

CyberSecurity

In fact, we’ve even seen the launch of a dedicated cybersecurity ETF (we’ll get to that later) late last year.

It’s no coincidence, of course, that businesses are investing more and more in cyber solutions, especially in the wake of high-profile data breaches at the likes of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) over the last several years.

So while you may not be the first one on the train, there’s still time to hop on a trend that’s picking up steam.

Here are the five best cybersecurity stocks to buy today:

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today: Fortinet Inc (FTNT)

5 Best Cyber security Stocks to Buy Today Fortinet Inc FTNT stockMarket Capitalization: $6.5 billion
YTD Return: +26%

Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) stock is, as I have written about previously, is still the best pure-play on cybersecurity in the stock market today. The wide range of applications for FTNT’s premier offering, a network security platform called FortiGate, is what makes this company special. FortiGate can be effectively utilized by small businesses and sprawling data centers alike to prevent breaches, giving it exposure to a diversified clientele and expanding its revenue stream.

FTNT stock is also fresh off a tremendous first quarter in which the company beat  expectations on both revenue and earnings per share, and pretty handily. Revenues of $212.9 million exceeded consensus estimates by $7.7 million, and EPS of 8 cents breezed past analyst calls for 6 cents per share.

Fortinet stock has now beaten EPS estimates for 13 straight quarters, and with Wall Street expecting earnings growth of just 6% this fiscal year, I have a feeling that FTNT could continue to surprise on the upside.

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today: FireEye Inc (FEYE)

5 Best Cyber security Stocks to Buy Today FireEye Inc FEYE stockMarket Capitalization: $6.8 billion
YTD Return: +40%

Although it suffered through a pretty miserable performance in 2014 — shares were down 26% on the year — FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) stock has certainly caught fire in 2015. If this bullish market retains its momentum, I wouldn’t be surprised if FEYE stock finished as one of the best performers of the year.

Like many high-flying stocks, FireEye is growing at a blistering pace: Revenues have grown by 186%, 147%, 93% and 163% respectively over the last four fiscal years. Also like many of its high-flying peers, FEYE hasn’t been afraid to spend gobs of money to fuel expansion at the expense of earnings. Because of this philosophy, FireEye doesn’t actually currently turn a profit, so if you’re looking for an established titan in the space, look elsewhere.

That said, if second-quarter earnings on April 30 are anything like last quarter’s results, FEYE stock will continue to rocket higher.

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today: Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW)

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW stockMarket Capitalization: $12.7 billion
YTD Return: +26%

Like FireEye, Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) stock also beat expectations in its most recent quarter, causing the stock to promptly rally.

Famed growth investor Louis Navellier, editor of the Blue Chip Growth and Emerging Growth newsletters, provided the glowing details of Palo Alto Networks’ most recent quarter in a recent article reiterating a buy on PANW stock:

“Compared to the year ago quarter, total revenues jumped 54% to $217.7 million. Analysts were expecting just $204 million in revenue. So, Palo Alto Networks posted a 6.4% sales surprise. Over the same period, adjusted earnings more than doubled from $7.8 million to $16.9 million, or 19 cents per share.

PANW beat the consensus earnings estimate of 17 cents per share by nearly 12%.”

Its enterprise- and government-level solutions can be delivered over the cloud and are clearly in high demand: Revenues are expected to roar 47% higher this fiscal year and grow by 33% in fiscal 2016.

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Now: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP)

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Now: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP)Market Capitalization: $16 billion
YTD Return: +11%

On Feb. 9, Louis Navellier named Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) as one of “3 Cybersecurity Stocks for 2015 and Beyond.”

“CHKP’s claim to fame is its Software Blade architecture, which is a very flexible and effective security architecture that allows CHKP to service the needs of clients of all shapes and sizes. On the consumer side, CHKP builds ZoneAlarm to keep hackers, spyware and identity thieves away from your data.”

Since then, Check Point stock is up 13%, and after its most recent quarterly earnings, where CHKP beat pretty handily on both revenue and EPS, sending shares up 5% in a single day.

Interestingly enough, Check Point and FireEye, an earlier company on this list, have teamed up to share intelligence data, so that partnership should mutually benefit both companies moving forward.

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today: PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK)

5 Best Cybersecurity Stocks to Buy Today: PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK)Assets Under Management: $586 million
YTD Return: +14%

I know, I know: It’s not a stock. But PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (NYSEARCA:HACK) is the single best way to gain broadly diversified exposure to cybersecurity stocks today. For instance, three of the previous stocks on this list — FTNT, FEYE and PANW — are top-10 holdings of the HACK ETF (CHKP is 13th), so if you don’t feel too confident about hand-picking a winner, this ETF makes it simple and gives you exposure to all of them.

If you believe in the growing need for cybersecurity solutions and happen to be a believer in momentum investing, the HACK ETF is pretty much tailor-made for you. Assets under management, or AUM, has more than doubled — soaring from $261 million to $556 million — in the last two months alone.

With 31 different stocks in its portfolio that carry an average market cap of $9.3 billion, the HACK ETF helps investors sidestep the volatility they can almost certainly expect in any individual stock.

Interestingly, while the first three cybersecurity stocks we examined were top-10 HACK holdings, the last stock on today’s buy list is not (though it is the 13th-largest holding).

As of this writing, John Divine did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter at @divinebizkid or email him at editor@investorplace.com.

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