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The end of an earnings season can be a great time to discover new stocks and assess how companies are handling the current business environment. Let’s take a look at how Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) and the rest of the cybersecurity stocks fared in Q1.

Cybersecurity continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments within software for good reason. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing rising cybersecurity risks. Businesses are accelerating adoption of cloud-based software, moving data and applications into the cloud to save costs while improving performance. This migration has opened them to a multitude of new threats, like employees accessing data via their smartphone while on an open network, or logging into a web-based interface from a laptop in a new location.

The 9 cybersecurity stocks we track reported a strong Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.6% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.

Thankfully, share prices of the companies have been resilient as they are up 5.6% on average since the latest earnings results.

Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD)

With its name inspired by the need for quick responses to cyber threats, Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD) provides cybersecurity software and services that help organizations detect vulnerabilities, monitor threats, and respond to security incidents.

Rapid7 reported revenues of $209.7 million, flat year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 0.8%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a mixed quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but EPS guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations.

"As frontier models reshape the cybersecurity landscape, Rapid7's AI SOC and preemptive security infrastructure are more essential than ever," said Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid7.Rapid7 Total Revenue

Rapid7 scored the highest full-year guidance raise but had the slowest revenue growth of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 9.9% since reporting and currently trades at $7.34.

Read our full report on Rapid7 here, it’s free.

Best Q1: Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Founded in 2005 by security visionary Nir Zuk who sought to reimagine firewall technology, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) provides AI-powered cybersecurity platforms that protect organizations' networks, clouds, and endpoints from sophisticated threats.

Palo Alto Networks reported revenues of $3.00 billion, up 31.1% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 2%. The business had a very strong quarter with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings and EBITDA estimates.

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Palo Alto Networks Total Revenue

Palo Alto Networks pulled off the fastest revenue growth among its peers. Although it had a fine quarter compared to its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 6.2% since reporting. It currently trades at $278.70.

Is now the time to buy Palo Alto Networks? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.

Weakest Q1: SentinelOne (NYSE:S)

Built on the principle of "fighting machine with machine," SentinelOne (NYSE:S) provides an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that autonomously prevents, detects, and responds to threats across endpoints, cloud workloads, and identity systems.

SentinelOne reported revenues of $276.7 million, up 20.8% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. It was a slower quarter as it posted EPS guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations and a significant miss of analysts’ billings estimates.

SentinelOne delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. The company added 35 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,702. As expected, the stock is down 18% since the results and currently trades at $14.77.

Read our full analysis of SentinelOne’s results here.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD)

Known for detecting the massive SolarWinds hack in 2020 that compromised numerous government agencies, CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions that protect endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data through its Falcon platform.

CrowdStrike reported revenues of $1.39 billion, up 25.6% year on year. This print beat analysts’ expectations by 1.7%. Aside from that, it was a satisfactory quarter as it also recorded a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but a miss of analysts’ billings estimates.

The stock is down 7.1% since reporting and currently trades at $694.47.

Read our full, actionable report on CrowdStrike here, it’s free.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA)

Named after the meteorological measurement for cloud cover, Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) provides cloud-based identity management solutions that help organizations securely connect their employees, partners, and customers to the right applications and services.

Okta reported revenues of $765 million, up 11.2% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 1.7%. Overall, it was a strong quarter as it also put up an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA and billings estimates.

Okta had the weakest full-year guidance update among its peers. The stock is up 23.5% since reporting and currently trades at $117.

Read our full, actionable report on Okta here, it’s free.

Market Update

Late in 2025 into early 2026, there was hand-wringing around artificial intelligence. For software companies, the fear was that AI would erode pricing power and compress margins as new tools made it easier to replicate what once required expensive enterprise platforms. Crypto investors had their own version of the same anxiety: if AI agents could trade, allocate capital, and manage wallets autonomously, what exactly was the long-term value of today’s crypto infrastructure?

These concerns triggered a noticeable rotation away from these sectors and into safer havens. But markets rarely dwell on one narrative for long. Spring 2026 came, and the focus shifted abruptly from technological disruption to geopolitical risk. The US’ conflict with Iran became the dominant driver of market psychology, and when geopolitics takes center stage, the script changes quickly. Investors stop debating growth rates and start worrying about oil supply, inflation, and global stability.

Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our 9 Best Market-Beating Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

StockStory’s analyst team — all seasoned professional investors — uses quantitative analysis and automation to deliver market-beating insights faster and with higher quality.

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eBay has had an impressive run over the past six months as its shares have beaten the S&P 500 by 21.5%. The stock now trades at $109.19, marking a 27.9% gain. This was partly thanks to its solid quarterly results, and the run-up might have investors contemplating their next move.

Is now the time to buy eBay, or should you be careful about including it in your portfolio? Get the full stock story straight from our expert analysts, it’s free.

Why Is eBay Not Exciting?

Despite the momentum, we don’t have much confidence in eBay. Here are three reasons you should be careful with EBAY, plus one stock we’d rather own.

1. Change in Active Buyers Points to Soft Demand

As an online marketplace, eBay generates revenue growth by increasing both the number of users on its platform and the average order size in dollars.

Over the last two years, eBay’s active buyers, a key performance metric for the company, increased by 1.3% annually to 136 million in the latest quarter. This growth rate is one of the lowest in the consumer internet sector, largely a function of its already massive scale and saturated market. If eBay wants to reaccelerate growth, it likely needs to innovate with new products.eBay Active Buyers

2. Projected Revenue Growth Is Slim

Forecasted revenues by Wall Street analysts signal a company’s potential. Predictions may not always be accurate, but accelerating growth typically boosts valuation multiples and stock prices while slowing growth does the opposite.

Over the next 12 months, sell-side analysts expect eBay’s revenue to rise by 5.8%, close to This projection is underwhelming and indicates its newer products and services will not lead to better top-line performance yet.

3. Shrinking EBITDA Margin

EBITDA is a good way of judging operating profitability for consumer internet companies because it excludes various one-time or non-cash expenses (depreciation), providing a more standardized view of the business’s profit potential.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, eBay’s EBITDA margin decreased by 7.4 percentage points over the last few years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability. Its EBITDA margin for the trailing 12 months was 26.3%.eBay Trailing 12-Month EBITDA Margin

Final Judgment

eBay’s business quality ultimately falls short of our standards. With its shares outperforming the market lately, the stock trades at 13.8× forward EV/EBITDA (or $109.19 per share). This valuation tells us it’s a bit of a market darling with a lot of good news priced in - we think other companies feature superior fundamentals at the moment. We’d suggest looking at an all-weather company that owns household favorite Taco Bell.

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Stocks We Would Buy Instead of eBay

ONE MORE THING: Top 5 Growth Stocks. The biggest stock winners almost always had one thing in common before they ran. Revenue growing like crazy. Meta. CrowdStrike. Broadcom. Our AI flagged all three. They returned 315%, 314%, and 455%, respectively.

Find out which 5 stocks it’s flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE.

Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,326% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+351% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

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Over the past six months, First Financial Bancorp has been a great trade, beating the S&P 500 by 12%. Its stock price has climbed to $31.78, representing a healthy 18.4% increase. This was partly thanks to its solid quarterly results, and the run-up might have investors contemplating their next move.

Is there a buying opportunity in First Financial Bancorp, or does it present a risk to your portfolio? See what our analysts have to say in our full research report, it’s free.

Why Is First Financial Bancorp Not Exciting?

We’re happy investors have made money, but we’re sitting this one out for now. Here are three reasons we avoid FFBC, plus one stock we’d rather own.

1. Long-Term Revenue Growth Disappoints

From lending activities to service fees, most banks build their revenue model around two income sources. Interest rate spreads between loans and deposits create the first stream, with the second coming from charges on everything from basic bank accounts to complex investment banking transactions.

Regrettably, First Financial Bancorp’s revenue grew at a mediocre 9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmark for the banking sector.First Financial Bancorp Quarterly Revenue

2. Net Interest Income Points to Soft Demand

While banks generate revenue from multiple sources, investors view net interest income as a cornerstone — its predictable, recurring characteristics stand in sharp contrast to the volatility of one-time fees.

First Financial Bancorp’s net interest income has grown at a 8.4% annualized rate over the last five years, worse than the broader banking industry and in line with its total revenue. Its growth was driven by both an increase in its outstanding loans and net interest margin, which represents how much a bank earns in relation to its outstanding loan book.First Financial Bancorp Trailing 12-Month Net Interest Income

3. Recent EPS Growth Below Our Standards

Although long-term earnings trends give us the big picture, we like to analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

First Financial Bancorp’s unimpressive 8.7% annual EPS growth over the last two years aligns with its revenue trend. This tells us it maintained its per-share profitability as it expanded.First Financial Bancorp Trailing 12-Month EPS (Non-GAAP)

Final Judgment

First Financial Bancorp isn’t a terrible business, but it doesn’t pass our bar. With its shares beating the market recently, the stock trades at 1.1× forward P/B (or $31.78 per share). This valuation is reasonable, but the company’s shakier fundamentals present too much downside risk. We’re fairly confident there are better stocks to buy right now. We’d suggest looking at the most dominant software business in the world.

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Stocks We Would Buy Instead of First Financial Bancorp

ONE MORE THING: Top 5 Growth Stocks. The biggest stock winners almost always had one thing in common before they ran. Revenue growing like crazy. Meta. CrowdStrike. Broadcom. Our AI flagged all three. They returned 315%, 314%, and 455%, respectively.

Find out which 5 stocks it’s flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE.

Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,326% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+351% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

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BlackBerry Limited BB is increasingly leveraging its profitable portfolio and intellectual property assets to create value for shareholders. The company's strategy centers on monetizing its robust patent portfolio, enhancing profitability in its software businesses, expanding recurring revenue streams and strengthening its balance sheet, which enables it to deliver long-term shareholder value. It emphasizes deploying its strong balance sheet to drive top-line growth and operational leverage, with a focus on investments rather than cost-cutting.

BlackBerry is boosting shareholder returns by cautiously allocating capital across its three profitable divisions—QNX, Secure Communications and Licensing—all of which generate positive adjusted EBITDA. QNX's adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal fourth quarter was near the high end of guidance ($17-$23 million), at $21.4 million. Secure Communications' adjusted EBITDA exceeded expectations ($11-$15 million), reaching $19.5 million. The licensing business contributed $6.3 million in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and $21 million for the full year, remaining a steady, largely passive source of profit and cash flow for BlackBerry.

To accelerate value creation, BlackBerry has set key priorities. The company continued its share buyback program in the quarter, repurchasing 6.7 million shares for $25 million. Since launching in May last year, it has bought back 15.5 million shares totaling $60 million. Despite returning capital through $60 million in share buybacks, the company strengthened its balance sheet — an encouraging sign for long-term investors. It plans to leverage its talented workforce, trusted brand and solid financial foundation. BlackBerry is investing in growth, especially in its QNX business. Even with these investments, it expects to generate positive cash flow this fiscal year, further strengthening its net cash position. BB will continue to evaluate opportunities for additional share repurchases when appropriate.

Do BlackBerry's Competitors Hold a Financial Edge?

CrowdStrike CRWD has a strong balance sheet with ample liquidity and manageable debt obligations. Cash and cash equivalents were $4.55 billion as of April 30, 2026, providing flexibility for investment and risk management. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, net cash generated from operations was $590.9 million, and free cash flow was $468.5 million. The company also repurchased $175.6 million of common stock in the first quarter, while long-term debt was about $745.8 million as of April 30, 2026. This liquidity and cash generation can support continued investment in research & development, sales capacity and bolt-on acquisitions as opportunities arise.

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Palo Alto Networks PANW continues to translate growth into cash generation as recurring revenue and scale expand. In fiscal third-quarter 2026, total revenues grew 31% year over year to $3 billion, and adjusted free cash flow was $910 million versus $578 million a year ago. Management guided fiscal 2026 revenues of $11.415-$11.425 billion, non-GAAP operating margin of 28.9-29.2% and adjusted free cash flow margin of 37.5%. As of April 30, 2026, PANW reported $3.11 billion in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, which provides flexibility to fund integration, product development and go-to-market priorities.

BB Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of BlackBerry have surged 52.3% in the past month compared with the Internet-Software industry's growth of 0.4%.Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Regarding the price/book ratio, BB is trading at 7.3, higher than the industry's multiple of 4.36.Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BB earnings for fiscal 2027 has been unchanged over the past 60 days.Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

BlackBerry currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) : Free Stock Analysis Report

BlackBerry Limited (BB) : Free Stock Analysis Report

CrowdStrike (CRWD) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?

Let's take a look at what these Wall Street heavyweights have to say about CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage.

CrowdStrike currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.65, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 51 brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.65 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy.

Of the 51 recommendations that derive the current ABR, 35 are Strong Buy and three are Buy. Strong Buy and Buy respectively account for 68.6% and 5.9% of all recommendations.

Brokerage Recommendation Trends for CRWDBroker Rating Breakdown Chart for CRWD

Check price target & stock forecast for CrowdStrike here>>>

While the ABR calls for buying CrowdStrike, it may not be wise to make an investment decision solely based on this information. Several studies have shown limited to no success of brokerage recommendations in guiding investors to pick stocks with the best price increase potential.

Do you wonder why? As a result of the vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover, their analysts tend to rate it with a strong positive bias. According to our research, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations for every "Strong Sell" recommendation.

In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement.

With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, which classifies stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), is a reliable indicator of a stock's near-term price performance. So, validating the Zacks Rank with ABR could go a long way in making a profitable investment decision.

Zacks Rank Should Not Be Confused With ABR

Although both Zacks Rank and ABR are displayed in a range of 1--5, they are different measures altogether.

The ABR is calculated solely based on brokerage recommendations and is typically displayed with decimals (example: 1.28). In contrast, the Zacks Rank is a quantitative model allowing investors to harness the power of earnings estimate revisions. It is displayed in whole numbers -- 1 to 5.

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Analysts employed by brokerage firms have been and continue to be overly optimistic with their recommendations. Since the ratings issued by these analysts are more favorable than their research would support because of the vested interest of their employers, they mislead investors far more often than they guide.

In contrast, the Zacks Rank is driven by earnings estimate revisions. And near-term stock price movements are strongly correlated with trends in earnings estimate revisions, according to empirical research.

In addition, the different Zacks Rank grades are applied proportionately to all stocks for which brokerage analysts provide current-year earnings estimates. In other words, this tool always maintains a balance among its five ranks.

There is also a key difference between the ABR and Zacks Rank when it comes to freshness. When you look at the ABR, it may not be up-to-date. Nonetheless, since brokerage analysts constantly revise their earnings estimates to reflect changing business trends, and their actions get reflected in the Zacks Rank quickly enough, it is always timely in predicting future stock prices.

Is CRWD Worth Investing In?

In terms of earnings estimate revisions for CrowdStrike, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has declined 8.3% over the past month to $4.93.

Analysts' growing pessimism over the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by strong agreement among them in revising EPS estimates lower, could be a legitimate reason for the stock to plunge in the near term.

The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for CrowdStrike. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Therefore, it could be wise to take the Buy-equivalent ABR for CrowdStrike with a grain of salt.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

CrowdStrike (CRWD) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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Key Points

Stock splits have enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. Historically, stock split stocks tend to beat the broader market. CrowdStrike has an excellent track record of growth and the backing of Wall Street's collective wisdom.10 stocks we like better than CrowdStrike ›

There's been a resurgence in the popularity of stock splits in recent years, driven by rising corporate profits and surging stock prices. It was common practice in the late 1990s, but fell out of fashion before enjoying a renaissance. This is historically a sign of a company performing at a high level, as evidenced by years, or even decades, of strong operating and financial results, which have driven the stock price out of reach for everyday investors.

Historically, these top-performing stocks continue to outpace their peers. History shows that companies that conduct stock splits generate stock price increases of 25%, on average, in the year following the announcement, compared with average gains of 12% for the S&P 500, according to data compiled by BofA analyst Jared Woodard.

Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »

Let's look at one recent stock split that still has plenty of upside ahead, according to Wall Street.

Image source: Getty Images.

AI in its DNA

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been all the rage in recent years, but CrowdStrike Holdings(NASDAQ: CRWD) has built a cybersecurity empire that leveraged AI before it was fashionable. The company's Falcon platform offers the most sophisticated threat protection available, infused with its Charlotte AI, which was designed for the world of generative and agentic AI.

The need for its services has never been greater. The global average cost of a data breach last year was $4.44 million, according to a report by IBM, and the threat worsens with every passing year. The abilities of AI to find exploits take that problem to the next level.

CrowdStrike has long been a trailblazer in the cybersecurity industry. It was recognized as a Leader in Gartner's 2026 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection for the seventh consecutive year. Perhaps as importantly, the company was chosen as a Leader in Gartner's inaugural 2026 Magic Quadrant for Cyberthreat Intelligence Technologies, cited for its "completeness of vision" and "ability to execute."

The company's results are compelling. For its fiscal 2027 first quarter (ended April 30), CrowdStrike reported revenue that climbed 26% year over year to $1.39 billion, driven higher by record annual recurring revenue (ARR) that grew 24% to $5.5 billion. This drove adjusted earnings per share (EPS) up 51% to $1.10.

Wall Street is bullish about CrowdStrike's future. Of the 54 analysts who offered an opinion in June, 78% rate it a buy or strong buy. Furthermore, Wall Street's average price target on the stock is about $712, implying additional upside of 10% compared to Wednesday's closing price.

However, one analyst is much more bullish. Rosenblatt Securities analyst Catharine Trebnick has a price target of $825 -- the highest among her Wall Street peers -- suggesting CrowdStrike stock could climb as much as 27% from its current price (as of market close on Wednesday). The analyst called CrowdStrike's Q1 financial report "outstanding." She goes on to say that the "intersection of frontier AI models and cybersecurity has positioned the Falcon platform as critical AI infrastructure."

Her thinking is on point. When AI start-up Anthropic unveiled its Claude Mythos Preview, the frontier AI model revealed "thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser" that hackers could use to gain access to critical systems. Anthropic formed a coalition to address these exploits, and CrowdStrike was one of just two cybersecurity companies invited to participate.

CrowdStrike's valuation is enough to make value investors cringe, so it likely won't be a fit for everyone. The stock is currently selling for 111 times forward earnings -- which is pricey to be sure. However, CrowdStrike has soared 362% over the past three years, more than five times the 71% return of the S&P 500, which underlines why it's worthy of a premium valuation.

Should you buy stock in CrowdStrike right now?

Before you buy stock in CrowdStrike, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and CrowdStrike wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $442,220! Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,230,114!

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 926% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 203% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 12, 2026.

Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Danny Vena, CPA has positions in CrowdStrike. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CrowdStrike and International Business Machines. The Motley Fool recommends Gartner. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool contributors Tyler Crowe, Matt Frankel, and Lou Whiteman discuss:

Broadcom’s good earnings.Playing the expectations game in a volatile market.Stocks doing well in downtrodden industries.Listener questions: How will the SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI IPOs impact cash on the sidelines and ETFs?

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »

A full transcript is below.

Should you buy stock in Broadcom right now?

Before you buy stock in Broadcom, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Broadcom wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $442,220! Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,230,114!

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 926% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 203% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 11, 2026.

This podcast was recorded on June 4, 2026.

Tyler Crowe: We've got Broadcom stock whiplash today on Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. I'm your host, Tyler Crowe, and today I'm joined by longtime Fool contributors Lou Whiteman and Matt Frankel. Today, we were going to mix it up a little bit. We thought we're going to do a bunch of different segments and do some basically non-earnings takes because it's June. We don't normally get a lot of surprise earnings stuff, but then Broadcom had to go and give its earnings, and now its stock’s down, I think, almost 15% as we are taping today, as we're going to get into. I'll let you guys really digest the numbers here. But by all objective metrics, all the numbers looked good. The guidance looked fine. Is this really just expectations game, Lou?

Lou Whiteman: I think it is. Expectations are everything. It's glass half full of glass empty. Stock is up 15%, just heading into earnings. When you get that sort of expectations, any slight hiccup, any slight sneeze can set you back. This was a slight miss on revenue, but look, it's brutal when people are expecting enough. Apparently, it was enough to outweigh 140% gains in AI semiconductor sales, which I don't know, Tyler, sounds pretty OK to me.

Tyler Crowe: Matt, you were the task a little bit more with the nitty-gritty of the numbers here. What did you see in this that was like, maybe not great. I don't know. It's hard to look at these and say, Yeah, we should definitely be dropping the stock by 15% because that's just what we do these days.

Matt Frankel: It's not only Broadcom. CrowdStrike also reported. We're getting all the reports from companies that use weird fiscal years, and some of them haven't been too impressive. But there was a lot to like here, 48% revenue growth, they beat on the bottom line. As Lou said, 140% roughly growth in AI semiconductor revenue. Guidance was strong, but if you look into the guidance, the AI revenue that they're guiding for is not quite what the market expected, so that could be driving a little bit of the sell-off. Any slowdown in AI or perceived slowdown is enough to scare investors, and it's not just that it was running up 15% heading into earnings, Broadcom was up 90% over the past year. In a nutshell, this stock went into the report priced for a blowout quarter and blowout guidance. It was a good quarter. I wouldn't call this a blowout quarter, especially on the AI side of the business, not a blowout.

Tyler Crowe: We certainly did see a lot of blowouts this most recent quarter looking at a lot of these suppliers. Taiwan Semi, basically everyone was like, everything is awesome. With Broadcom's numbers looking pretty good. It was almost like comparing to everyone else. Is like, Well, they were that good. Can you do as well? This touches on a couple of top themes and topics we've discussed so far during this week. When the three of us were on the show on Tuesday, we were talking about how much does narrative play into your thesis? Narrative is also valuation-based. We were talking about this with Dollar General because, as a value play as a stock, you are betting on a return to median, return to average valuation.

Right now, we're all the narrative is defying expectations to justify very high valuations. At the same time, too, it touches on this idea of the start-stop whack-a-mole discussion about the AI build-out that, Lou, you, I, and Travis were talking about yesterday, where it seems like every couple of months here, we're talking about the next bottleneck. At first, it was is going to be chits. Then it became memory chips. Now we're talking about, the old companies like Dell that are just building off products, and we can name like 15 other suppliers where somewhere there's a stop-start going on here where somebody's doing awesome, but then, just because they didn't blow out earnings, they're going to have a 15% stock drop.

Lou Whiteman: Two points here, one macro, one micro, I guess. First of all, the macro, the narrative. I think you are so right and I think investors better be watching the narrative right now because there is a real indication that nothing is good enough. I look at what happened with Nvidia’s quarter. Look what the stock did there. Expectations are so out of this world right now that I don't know if any company, almost, can satisfy the market long term. For strong companies that can outlast the cycle, that's just an annoyance. But if you are in some of the, I guess, more speculative AI companies, I think this should be a warning sign to you that nothing is good enough, so look out below.

Specific to Broadcom, look, there are massive expectations still up ahead. CEO Hock Tan is forecasting $100 billion in annual AI chip revenue in fiscal ‘27. They're on pace to do about half of that this year, Tyler, and it took triple-digit gains to get to that 50 billion that they hope to do this year. I see that the stop-start nature of this, the questions about potential fragility, and it scares me. You add in the fact that OpenAI and Anthropic are going to account for a lot of that growth. Those are two very different companies right now. Even if OpenAI gets their act together and does well, you are putting a lot of eggs in just a couple of baskets with that customer concentration. I'm not predicting gloom. Broadcom is a good company, but right now, it's just hard to look at this and say, yes, everything's fine, everything goes up from here.

One other thing, software revenue, which is supposed to be recurring, to balance this out. That only grew by 9%. All of this growth is going to have to come based on their ability to keep selling hardware at really amazing levels. We'll see how long that lasts.

Matt Frankel: To Lou’s point, the expectations are huge here. You mentioned they're predicting about $100 billion of AI revenue in 2027. For about $40 billion of that, a little more is expected to come from Anthropic alone. OpenAI is a big client. The anthropic and OpenAI IPOs are really worth paying attention to. Anthropic just raised $65 billion. We've talked about this with other companies. I think Oracle was one of them where these commitments they're going to need to pay. They raised $65 billion. OpenAI raised $120 billion recently. That's not going to be enough for all of their commitments. These IPOs really need to go well, they need to get strong valuations. OpenAI and anthropic IPOs are probably the single most important near-term story for Broadcom investors to watch. The 2027 and 2028 growth story for the company, which the IPOs are going to directly support. It's largely intact for now, but that could change if demand cools off.

Tyler Crowe: We'll be getting into that in a later segment, but the amount of money that needs to be raised this year to make those commitments to Broadcom and all their other suppliers is looking pretty hefty and could have some pretty profound impacts on the market in general, beyond just those individual companies. But we're going to hit that after the break. But before that, we're going to actually take a pause from the AI discussion and just kind of look at some other sectors and some stocks that are really changing up the narrative of the sector that they're in. We'll hit that after the break.

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Tyler Crowe: I was reading an investing newsletter a couple of days ago, and there was a quote from the chief economist at Apollo talking about diversification and the importance of it. This was an interesting quote to me. It was factor investing tells investors not to be overexposed to just one factor. What he said was, the new 60/40 is now the AI versus non-AI thing. For those who aren't familiar, 60/40 was the benchmark gold standard for individual investors, people, probably not picking individual stocks. 60% of your money in stocks, 40% of your money in bonds, maybe you start changing that as you get older, but it was the standard benchmark that most wealth advisors told you to do to get diversification in the market.

As this quote is saying, it's not just the factor of bonds versus stocks, but it's also how much diversification do you have away from AI? In the spirit of that, we wanted to dedicate a whole segment to basically sectors and parts of the market that just aren't AI. Specifically, we've had a pretty bifurcated market so far. We've had some industries doing extremely well and others have been taking a bit on the chin. I think insurance, healthcare, biotech has done surprisingly not well. Well, energy, semiconductors, technologies absolutely fly. In that vein, what we played a little game with these guys. I each wanted you guys to pick one stock from an industry and find a stock that you find that is bucking the sector trend. Is there a company that's doing lousy in these awesome sectors or a company that's doing gangbusters in a downtrodden sector? I want to start with you, Matt. What's the sector in the stock that you're like, This is interesting.

Matt Frankel: Well, it's been a long time since I've gotten to talk about real estate because all we talk about is AI and SpaceX lately. I'm going to bring up.

Tyler Crowe: That's the whole point of this segment.

Matt Frankel: I'm going to bring up a real estate stock. Over the past three months, the S&P 500 as a whole has gained about 11%, mostly because of the mega‑cap tech stocks. Meanwhile, the real estate sector has been almost exactly flat. It was up 0.02% as I was looking this morning. There are some good reasons for it to be fair, specifically the fact that inflation is at its highest level in three years. There are legitimate concerns about the Fed raising rates. Real estate is a very rate-sensitive sector as a whole.

One that has really bucked the trend is Ryman Hospitality Properties. Ticker is RHP. It's up 18% in the past three months, even beating the S&P, not just the real estate sector. Hotel real estate is generally less rate-sensitive than other real estate subsectors. Unlike things like warehouses and retail properties which rely on long-term leases have predictable cash flow, hotels rent their space by the night and share prices; therefore are more governed by the business performance, which can really ebb and flow over time. Ryman's business has been impressive. In the first quarter, revenue and net income were at all-time highs for that time of year. The company raised its full-year guidance. Average daily rates for the hotel rooms and out-of-room spending were both up by double digits year over year. Their entertainment division is performing really well, especially that Old Red dining and entertainment brand just announced its seventh location. Its flagship Vegas location is dramatically outperforming expectations. Adjusted FFO, funds from operations, which is the real estate version of earnings, grew by 19% year over year. That's a rapid pace for real estate.

Tyler Crowe: Permit me a little bit of a follow up question here. When I think hospitality, too, though, I do think sensitivity to macroeconomic factors. When you look at Ryman, because it is a hospitality REIT, is this a specific REIT that has some call it macroeconomic macro vibes resiliency in it with its business model, or is it a little bit of ride the wave until it's no longer working?

Matt Frankel: That's a really good question because they're a group-focused hotel. The reason that that's important is that they focus on conferences, conventions, things like that, and these tend to book three,, four years in advance. They have a lot of future revenue visibility as opposed to an operator of a Hilton or a non-group focused hotel. They have some resilience, and you got to think of what they're being compared to in year over year. International travel was way down a year ago. That's coming back a little bit. Group events are a very resilient part of the hotel market. You bring up a really good point. I wouldn't really want to invest in a leisure hotel operator with macro uncertainty, but one that has that group-focused business, which is more than half of Ryman's business, it does have a little more visibility.

Tyler Crowe: Lou, I think we're not going to do anything real estate related to what you're looking at here.

Lou Whiteman: No, I will say, though, I'd rather own Ryman than stay at the Grand Old Opery. There's that for it. Look, I'm looking at the transports. I'm going to apply my gratists too, but it's been a pretty crummy few years for the transports. There were a lot of factors driving that. We were coming down from the sugar high of the pandemic where everything was shipped. ASAP. We've had the added uncertainty of tariffs, trade wars, and macro concerns, slowing economy. Big customers tend not to stock up on inventories if they're worried, the economy is slowing. It all has added up to underperformance, really crummy numbers. Nasdaq Transportation index has underperformed the market by 25 percentage points over the last three years.

In that environment, XPO, a trucking company, is up 340%. Easily beating both the transports and the broader market. Now some of that is good fortune. A big competitor, yellow, liquidated, XPO picked up a lot or a good bit of that business at literally prices that made it EB a positive just from Day 1. But it's also management deserves a lot of credit here. This is a story of simplification. Split out a couple of other units to just focus on one thing and being good at one thing. They shedded unrelated businesses that are fine on their own, but not part of the story. They also hired a ton of really, good people from competitors that quite frankly were doing better than them and they've started to shift their focus to margin over volume. This is, I think, sustainable. We've seen with Old Dominion, how a good operator over time can just outperform the sector and the market just based on the strength of their operations. I think XPO has elevated itself to that level.

Tyler Crowe: Similar follow up, and this is a discussion you and I, I think we had a couple of years ago too, where it felt like a time where trucking, especially was like, you've got Old Dominion XPO is up and coming, but you had a lot of subpar operators in this industry, so it was Old Dominion and to a lesser degree, XPO was taking candy from a baby taking market share here because they couldn't seem to get their hand out of the paste jar. It seems like that's less the case now. Obviously, Old Dominion XPO are dominant players here, but some of the other players in the industry found religion, I guess, you will, on March and on capacity additions at a reasonable rate. With that in mind, with the outperformers like XPO and Old Dominion that have done so well, now that they're facing more competent competition, is the growth opportunities as robust here or is it a little bit more of a knife fight for share?

Lou Whiteman A couple of things going on, I think. For one, until recently, XPO didn't deserve to be in that conversation as a good performer. What you've seen is them enter this. I think it's more of a risk for, say, an Old Dominion, which has benefited over the years for just being the only ones who could get pricing right. The other answer is scale. At the end of the day, you still have advantages to scale that you can be more efficient, even if it's the super friends, a couple of players that are really, better than anyone else, there's enough business out there. XPO is finally trading. At a multiple similar to Old Dominion, which you never saw a few years ago. I do think probably the 340% over three years, that we can't repeat that, that a lot of that was playing catch-up. But I think that, like I said, Old Dominion is the model. I think there is room for a few companies here that just outperform their peers and, over time, outperform the market.

Tyler Crowe: Trucking, as boring as it sounds, it's been a weirdly fascinating industry over the past I don't know, at least decade to follow. Interesting to see XPO, I can almost say getting down to fighting weight, I guess would be the best way to put it so they can compete. I'll give my answer here too, because one industry that's been quite lousy this year and so far, year to date, as well as over the past year or so has been insurance. Obviously there is reasons for that. Insurance is a cyclical industry, and a lot of the underperformers in the insurance industry in general have been a lot of high flyers, especially your specialty insurers and things like that. You're also seeing a lot of pricing pressure on the big lines of insurance that we see automotive and homeowners, some of the biggest a lot of these competitors are trying to take share and when you take share, profitability sinks and that tends to hurt stocks.

But health insurance in particular has been hit even harder. Rising costs are getting hard to control, plus lots of backlash from patients, and just in general, the feeling towards health insurers has been not great because high rates of denials, higher copays. It's the stuff that frustrate people using their health insurance. It's led to quite a bit of unpopularity. This is where there’s this one company that seems to be separating itself from the rest here, and obviously, it’s a small one, so it has that opportunity. It's called Oscar Health, ticker OSCR. They straddle this health insurance technology and health insurance broker business. Most of what it did was, when it got started in 2012, it was contingent on the American Healthcare Act or the Obamacare marketplaces. What it did was it set up programs where small business owners would let their employers buy individual insurance and using Oscar's platform, the employer would basically reimburse the individual for it, and that would allow them to meet their compliance for insuring their customers, while giving them — their employees, excuse me,— while giving them more options and actually was a way of relatively controlling costs because there were some subsidies related to using the marketplaces.

It kinda worked for a while, but when the marketplaces, ObamaCare marketplaces are doing well. But many insurers have left that program, and it’s been walking in the woods, trying to figure out what it wants to do next, and figure this out, and it’s starting to gain traction here. It's now more focused on providing individual insurance themselves, taking more of the underwriting burden, and so far, they've done a decent job. Their combined ratios are, have been varying. I think their health loss ratios were 70% in the most recent quarter, combined ratios 87, 88, which by insurance standards, is quite good. Any insurance, almost any line that you're looking at, below a 90% coverage loss ratio, which is basically how much you have to pay out in costs for healthcare or auto claims or anything like that, relative to the premium bring in. It's basically saying you have a 10% operating margin. Industry lingo. I know it's silly, but it works pretty well for an insurer.

Despite the fact that they've been winding down some big-name programs, they had a program with Cigna that didn't quite work out. They've been focusing more on the individuals. It seems to be working. I'm not saying they're out of the woods yet, and I'm not wholeheartedly going to pound the table to say, this is an awesome company now, but it's very interesting to see and obviously the stock is reflecting the fact that they are getting some traction with what they're doing. Coming up next, we're going to get into listener questions about all these massive IPOs coming to market.

Hey, just a reminder, we love answering your questions. If you do want your question answered on air, go ahead and email us at podcasts @fool.com. Three rules as always. No. 1, keep it Foolish, two keep it short enough for us to read, and three, we cannot give personalized advice, so let's try to keep it relatively generic.

As long as we've been taking questions, what we have seen more than anything else so far is questions about SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs, specifically to how they're going to impact the broader market. We're talking about early index inclusion for a lot of these companies because they're going in so big, and the questions have been numerous. But there's just two that are most representative of what we're talking about. This was from Ben Jackson. "With the recent changes to the Nasdaq index and immature over to value companies like SpaceX IPO with little supply — he's being a little diminutive here — but should your average ETF investor or index investor be reconsidering or selling their ETF portfolio to avoid the long-term turbulence that these large IPOs going into these ETFs may cause. This one is from Thomas Bianco. If we already know that approximately $4 trillion of new money will be sucked up in these three IPOs, basically, the combined market value, they think is going to be around $4 trillion for all three of them when they go public, How can we adjust our current equities positions to account for these forthcoming disruptions?

Now, I want to just give a little bit of context here because all the money we're going to be sucking up with these large ones. Right now, data from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis says that about $8.1 trillion is in money market funds as of fourth quarter of 2025. That sounds like a lot, but you also have to factor, how much is in the market in general. We have a thing at The Motley Fool. It’s called the PT potential growth indicator. Basically, it takes all the cash that's on the sidelines or in money market accounts, like the Fred data says and then divided by the total stock market valuation, which is at about 10.1%. Over the past 30 years, that is a little bit on the lower side. You could say that that's saying, everyone's pretty optimistic. They want to be in the market relative to what we see in other different times. With those little factoids, the amount of money that we're talking about here, guys, what do you have to say to Ben and Thomas' questions here?

Lou Whiteman: I think the first thing we should note is that the IPO headline number isn't the same as the money raised. SpaceX is looking for a $1.8 trillion IPO valuation, but it's only actually raising 75 billion. That said, 75 billion is a massive number for an IPO. I think the point is still relevant. The net impact, though, I'm not sure what I think. It might suck money away from other areas because again, we have a lot of demand here. $75 billion worth of money has to be found here. But over the next six months, billions of dollars in SpaceX stock is going to be unlocked and free to trade. These are people who got in before the IPO. If those insiders decide to sell, that could free up at least 75 billion, if not more for other opportunities that could impact other stocks in a positive way. That actually could be a positive impact in some ways, Tyler. Bottom line, though, is the only thing we know for certain is it's going to cause volatility. I personally am not going to reposition things or do anything in anticipation of this. I think that, yes, there could be volatility, but over time, I think this will balance itself out as a long term focused investor. I'm not going to lose sleep on this, I'm going to just make some popcorn and watch.

Matt Frankel: As Lou said, the money raised won't be in the trillions of dollars, but the latest forecast is for around 240 billion across those big three, SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI. Just to put that in context, in 2025, the entire IPO market, all companies raised about $45 billion combined. The largest U.S. IPO previously raised about 22 billion. We are in uncharted territory. There’s plenty of money on the sidelines, as Tyler mentioned, the money market accounts, but the reality is that a lot of money flowing into these three IPOs is going to have to come from somewhere, and existing stock investments are probably going to be a big source. Specifically, I would think that most people are going to sell Magnificent 7 shares to invest in some of these. No one's going to sell their realty income stock to buy SpaceX is my point there. Tesla could be an interesting one to watch. A lot of Elon Musk fans could sell one Elon Musk stock to buy another.

But on the other hand, there is a case to be made that there's going to be a lot of new money flowing into the market this year, not just because of these IPOs. These IPOs are certainly increasing the overall interest in the stock market by retail investors. As we're recording this, I actually got a notification from my broker that the SpaceX IPO is available. A lot of people are taking notice. It's going to be an interesting year for sure. All three could create significant short-term volatility, but like Lou said, I'm not losing sleep over it. I think it's going to work itself out in the long term, and I'm not planning on buying any of these three on Day 1, at least.

Tyler Crowe: Feel like we're probably all going to get that SpaceX email from our brokers in the next week or so I want to just actually conclude with this, too, about ETFs and allocations and things like that. This is an important thing for people to consider when they're buying ETFs. Say you're buying a broad-based S&P 500 ETF, there are two different types. There are market cap-weighted ones, which is obviously the ones that are going to be most influenced here by the large amount of money going into them. But there's also equal-weight CAP or equal-weighted indices as well, where instead of doing market cap as, it's every single company at every equal weights. It's pretty self-explanatory. Ones like this are obviously going to probably see less volatility relative to these trades. If you are looking to get broad exposure to an entire market, but are perhaps more skittish, I guess you could say, of these mega-cap companies coming in and becoming a larger and larger portion of what's supposed to be a broad-based index. There are equal-weight index options out there that might be worth considering.

As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show. Thanks to producer Dan Boyd and the rest of the team for Lou, Matt, myself, thanks for listening, and we'll chat again soon.

Lou Whiteman has positions in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and XPO. Matt Frankel, CFP® has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Tyler Crowe has positions in Ryman Hospitality Properties. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom, CrowdStrike, Nvidia, Old Dominion Freight Line, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Ryman Hospitality Properties and XPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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What Happened?

A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after the Nasdaq rebounded, up 1.8%, as Trump's Iran peace deal announcement released the rate pressure that weighed on the sector.

Oil prices fell more than 3% following the cancellation of planned strikes on Iran, easing the inflation pressure that had been driving rate hike expectations. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.47% from 4.55%, a move that expands the forward earnings multiples tech stocks trade on. Every basis point of yield reduction matters more to a company priced on earnings years into the future than to almost any other sector.

The combination of lower oil, lower yields, and geopolitical risk being removed from global supply chains was precisely the backdrop tech needed to recover after three consecutive sessions of selling.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

Endpoint Security company CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) jumped 6.5%. Is now the time to buy CrowdStrike? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free. Content Delivery company Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) jumped 3.6%. Is now the time to buy Cloudflare? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

Zooming In On CrowdStrike (CRWD)

CrowdStrike’s shares are quite volatile and have had 17 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 6 days ago when the stock dropped 4.2% as a stronger-than-expected jobs report signaled that the Federal Reserve may keep interest rates higher for longer.

The U.S. economy added 172,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in May, significantly surpassing economists' expectations of around 85,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%. This robust labor market data eases concerns of an economic slowdown but diminishes the likelihood of near-term interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

A prolonged high-interest-rate environment can create headwinds for growth-oriented sectors like technology, as it pressures stock valuations by making future earnings less valuable in the present. As a result, investors recalibrated their expectations for a 'higher-for-longer' rate scenario.

CrowdStrike is up 53.1% since the beginning of the year, but at $694.26 per share, it is still trading 11.2% below its 52-week high of $782.17 from May 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of CrowdStrike’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,002.

Story Continues

ONE MORE THING: The $21 AI Application Stock Wall Street Forgot. While Wall Street obsesses over who’s building AI, one company is already using it to print money. And nobody’s paying attention.

AI chip stocks trade at ridiculous valuations. This company processes a trillion consumer signals monthly using AI and trades at a third of the price. The gap won’t last. The institutions will figure it out. You need to see this first. Read the FREE Report Before They Notice.

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Haftungsausschluss: Der Text wurde mit Hilfe einer KI zusammengefasst und übersetzt. Für Aussagen aus dem Originaltext wird keine Haftung übernommen!

CrowdStrike (CRWD): Eine großartige Firma, aber ein furchtbares Preisniveau. Die Wachstumsraten sind real, der Cashflow ist ausgezeichnet und der AI-Sicherheitswind sieht dauerhaft aus. Aber bei einem EBITDA von 156,9x Earnings und 31,9x Umsatz ist das Aktienkurs in Jahren perfekter Ausführung angelegt. Jeder Stolpern könnte zu einer schweren Abwärtsspirale führen.

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Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge.

CrowdStrike Holdings (NasdaqGS:CRWD) has been named Frost & Sullivan's 2026 Growth and Innovation Leader in Cloud and Application Runtime Security. This is the second consecutive year the company has received this recognition. The award highlights CrowdStrike's role in AI native security infrastructure and the traction of its Falcon platform in securing AI workloads.

CrowdStrike's latest recognition lands at a time when the stock has had a strong multi year run and remains in focus with a current share price of $647.74. The company has delivered a very large return over 3 years and is up 176.6% over 5 years, while the move over the past week shows a decline of 13.4%. Over 30 days the stock is up 19.5%, and up 42.8% year to date, which helps frame how this new accolade fits into an already closely watched story.

For investors tracking NasdaqGS:CRWD, Frost & Sullivan's award adds another data point about how the Falcon platform is being used around AI and cloud security. While future results depend on many factors, this type of third party validation gives extra context on how the company's technology is positioned as AI workloads become a bigger part of enterprise security discussions.

Wall Street's queuing for one rocket. While SpaceX counts down to its IPO, other companies tied to the new space race are already in orbit. → 20 Compelling Space Companies watchlist · Global Space Race Investing Ideas screener · Scan the sector by valuation on Rocket Lab's valuation page.NasdaqGS:CRWD 1-Year Stock Price Chart

Does the team leading CrowdStrike Holdings have what it takes? See our full breakdown of the management team's track record and compensation.

Quick Assessment

⚖️ Price vs Analyst Target: At US$647.74, the stock trades about 9% below the US$712.37 analyst target, so it sits within the typical range around consensus. ❌ Simply Wall St Valuation: Shares are flagged as trading 84.1% above estimated fair value, which points to a rich valuation. ✅ Recent Momentum: A 19.5% gain over 30 days signals strong short term momentum into this Frost & Sullivan recognition.

There's only one way to know the right time to buy, sell or hold CrowdStrike Holdings. Head to Simply Wall St's company report for the latest analysis of CrowdStrike Holdings's Fair Value.

Key Considerations

📊 The Frost & Sullivan award for AI native security and cloud runtime protection reinforces the role of Falcon in securing next generation AI workloads. 📊 Watch how revenue, profitability and customer adoption in AI related security use cases track against the current P/E and high price relative to fair value estimates. ⚠️ One flagged risk is significant insider selling over the past 3 months, which some investors may weigh carefully at an 84.1% premium to estimated fair value.

Story Continues

Dig Deeper

For the full picture including more risks and rewards, check out the complete CrowdStrike Holdings analysis. Alternatively, you can check out the community page for CrowdStrike Holdings to see how other investors believe this latest news will impact the company's narrative.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Companies discussed in this article include CRWD.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com

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