Will CrowdStrike extend its earnings view streak?

Cybersecurity stocks have risen in recent weeks, as companies like CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ: CRWD) have rallied from previous lows.

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CrowdStrike specializes in cloud-based protection for enterprise customers. It offers intelligence on various cyber threats and also provides security operations management and info-technology services, mostly on a subscription basis.

CrowdStrike is a key player in endpoint security, a term for protecting computer networks remotely connected to other devices. With more and more professionals working from home on corporate networks, endpoint security has become even more important over the past two years.

Meanwhile, hackers and other bad guys are upgrading their games, another reason why cybersecurity is high on the list of things businesses need to invest in.

The stock is up 43.67% in the past three months, from a low of $130 on May 12. Shares closed Monday at $201.82, a gain of $0.95 from Friday.

On the CrowdStrike chart, a trendline shows near-term potential for a rally to around $215. Additionally, over the next 12-18 months, analysts have a price target of $247.32, according to ratings data from MarketBeat. That's an upside potential of 22.58%. The consensus rating on Wall Street is "buy".

Deployment of new services

Last week, the company unveiled AI-powered attack indicators, delivered on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform and powered by CrowdStrike Security Cloud. According to the company, "These new detection and response capabilities halt emerging attack techniques and enable organizations to optimize the threat detection and response lifecycle with speed, scalability, and accuracy."< /p>

CrowdStrike will report its second quarter on August 30 after market close. Analysts are looking for a loss of $0.17 per share on revenue of $515.45 million.

However, non-GAAP earnings per share in recent quarters have been positive, driving triple-digit year-over-year earnings growth in each of the past eight quarters. Revenue grew at double-digit rates during this period.

MarketBeat earnings data reveals that CrowdStrike has exceeded earnings and revenue expectations in every quarter since September 2019.

It often helps a stock if there is strength across its industry, as this widespread potential attracts broad investment. Companies offering similar or related services, or with similar customer bases, often move in tandem as capital flows throughout the industry.

For example, in the case of CrowdStrike, other large-cap cybersecurity stocks in rally mode include Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) and Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT).

Palo Alto Networks specializes in firewall protection. It is also in the field of cloud security. The stock is up 10.11% over the past three months and continues to consolidate - meaning investors may not have missed the next big rally - at least in the short to medium term. p>

The company is due to report its fourth fiscal quarter on August 22, with analysts expecting earnings per share of $2.28 on revenue of $1.54 billion. If achieved, they would mark year-on-year gains in both revenue and earnings.

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for Palo Alto Networks show the company hasn't seen bottom line results in the past two quarters.

Not beating the views enough

Another large-cap internet security company, Fortinet, has been patching since January. It was up just 1.80% over the past three months, but rebounded 1.69% last week after a smaller spread after its August 3 report.

While second-quarter earnings and sales beat analysts' expectations, revenue guidance for the current quarter came in below expectations. Further, illustrating the "perfect pricing" phenomenon that often occurs with growth stocks, Wall Street was disappointed with the degree to which earnings and revenue overshot last quarter.

Yes, you read that right. Although the company exceeded expectations, the margin was not large enough compared to the size of the beats in previous quarters.

However,