One of Israel’s greatest skills is cybersecurity, and a lot of cybersecurity stocks have some presence in the country to take advantage of all that local talent. However, that same impressive array of talent may be a problem for cybersecurity stocks, as quite a bit of workers could be drafted into the war against Hamas that started over the weekend. Despite this risk, many cybersecurity stocks were up in Tuesday morning’s trading.
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CyberArk Software (NASDAQ:CYBR) was hit the hardest, down fractionally in the morning’s trading session. However, CheckPoint (NASDAQ:CHKP), Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW), Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD), and SentinelOne (NYSE:S) were all up to some extent. Of these, CheckPoint fared the worst, up only fractionally, while Palo Alto and SentinelOne were both up nearly 2%. Rapid7, meanwhile, was the front-runner, up 2.5% at one point. While it’s uncertain if any of these companies will lose Israeli workers due to annual military reserve duty or a general call-up to join in the fighting as Israel moves ground forces into Gaza, the possibility remains.
However, an alternative might be struck that might actually divert less brainpower from these stocks. Reports note that cyberattacks have already started hitting Israeli targets not long after the Hamas invasion. While these attacks haven’t had much impact, the idea that they might ramp up isn’t out of line. With so much critical infrastructure on the line, the Israeli military might well use those cybersecurity professionals providing cybersecurity instead of pulling triggers on the line. Currently, many of the attacks are targeting individual websites, and Russian hacking groups are taking credit, but where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.
Which Cybersecurity Stocks are a Good Buy Right Now?
As for the cybersecurity stocks mentioned here, CyberArk took the biggest hit today. But this Strong Buy also offers the highest upside potential, with an average price target of $188.40 yielding an upside of 13.1%. CheckPoint, meanwhile, offers the lowest upside, as this Moderate Buy offers a 2.54% upside potential on its average price target of $139.31.
