Bank of America says buy this ‘diamond in the rough’ cybersecurity stock

Bank of America sees more room to run for CyberArk shares after a strong earnings report. Analyst Madeline Brooks hiked her price target by $20 to $335, which now suggests 27.1% upside from Thursday’s close. Brooks also maintained her buy rating on the cybersecurity stock. As “a diamond in the rough, CyberArk keeps shining bright,” Brooks told clients in a Thursday note. That’s in reference to the company’s second-quarter report released Thursday, which showed better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue. CyberArk also increased its guidance for the full-year on both measures. Brooks noted that demand for identity security “remains robust,” pointing to major breaches at AT & T and Snowflake as reason for potential clients to be interested. She said the company should continue performing well in the second half of the year, even as others falter. “Many companies continue to see softening demand trends and stagnating new customer growth,” she said. However, “CyberArk reported improving sales cycles, record net new [annual recurring revenue], and healthy new logo growth, a testament to the durability of underlying growth drivers.” CYBR CRWD YTD mountain CyberArk vs. CrowdStrike, year to date CyberArk has also gained attention in the wake of the global IT outage sparked by CrowdStrike . While CrowdStrike is now down around 5% on the year, CyberArk has climbed more than 24%. A chunk of those gains for CyberArk came following Thursday’s financial print. Shares advanced more than 3% in Friday morning trading, adding to Thursday’s climb of more than 8%. “We see several drivers that should continue to support growth,” Brooks said. “Changes in the regulatory environment such as the SEC’s mandated breach reporting, are another driver of increased adoption, and management noted a pick-up in post-breach deals. Identity remains the most exploited attack vector, which should fuel continued growth especially in machine identity.”