TSP Weekly Tech Stock Update—Jan 4, 2025

This Week: 2025 software sector outlook, Goldman turns bullish on NET, CyberArk could gain PAM share, AAPL rally cools, MSFT Azure growth set to reaccelerate, Unity's new CEO makes progress & more.

Hello from Rob…

—Shares of CyberArk Software (CYBR, $339.47) this week rose 5.8% and hit a new all-time high of $348.02 because the company is viewed as a potential beneficiary of the recent U.S. Treasure Dept. hack.

It was announced that hackers affiliated with the Chinese government breached several Treasury Dept. workstations and accessed unclassified documents. The hackers gained access by overriding security controls from BeyondTrust, a major CyberArk competitor in the privileged access management (PAM) space.

Morgan Stanley says BeyondTrust has nearly a 20% share of the PAM market. This breach opens up an opportunity for CyberArk to possibly win PAM share from its competitor, particularly in the federal vertical.

DA Davidson raised its CyberArk price target to $390 from $360, saying it believes the company continues to solidify its position as the leading identity security platform.

The firm argues CyberArk’s strong competitive position, market opportunity, growth durability and margin potential are still not fully appreciated by investors.

I last wrote about CyberArk in October, when the stock was trading just under $300. Also, read more about CyberArk’s 2024 acquisition of Venafi and its opportunity in machine identity management.

*Inside This Issue: 7 Tech Takeover Candidates For 2025

—Paid subscribers will receive the January 2025 PDF of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #275) via email on Tuesday, January 7.

—Paid subscribers have access to the TSP Market Overview and TSP Portfolio Updates sections inside this issue.