Retail Traders Back CrowdStrike as Top Cybersecurity Stock to Watch

A recent Stocktwits poll asked users to predict which cybersecurity stock would perform best over the next 12 months. The results showed that nearly half of respondents, 47%, chose CrowdStrike (CRWD) as their top pick.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) came in second with 22% of the vote, followed by Zscaler (ZS) with 18% and Cloudflare (NET) with 13%. The poll also mentioned that retail traders believe SentinelOne (S), Netskope (NTSK), and Okta (OKTA) could benefit from increased enterprise spending on cybersecurity.

The results of the poll come after a surprise warning from IBM, which said that companies are redirecting their spending priorities away from traditional IT infrastructure and towards cybersecurity. As a result, CrowdStrike led the charge in Tuesday's market rally, surging over 12%, while Zscaler rose by nearly 7%.

Wall Street analysts also weighed in on the stocks, with an average price target of $192.58 for Zscaler implying more than 26% upside potential. Meanwhile, CrowdStrike has a 12-month average price target of $184.32, which implies a downside of about 12.5% from its last close.