#cybersecurity | hacker #nationalcybersecuritymonth | Cybersecurity Stocks: This One Is in High Demand Ahead of the Holidays

Did you know that there is an “awareness” for each month? For example, in November, we have Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, Diabetes Awareness Month and Lung Cancer Awareness Month — just to name a few.

Now, while these topics are very important and should be recognized, today I want to talk about something that was on the calendar for last month: National Cybersecurity Awareness. That’s right, cybersecurity has had such a huge impact on the U.S. that it now has an entire month dedicated to it.

This isn’t too surprising considering that there’s a cyber attack every second. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, since 2013, there have been 158,727 per hour, 2,645 per minute and 44 every second of every day. Juniper Research estimates that by 2023, cyber criminals are estimated to steal 33 billion records!

While we’re now almost a week past National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I’m bringing cybersecurity back to your attention now because there’s a cyber attack on the rise that could put a big damper on your holiday shopping.

I’m talking about e-skimming, or formjacking. Put simply, e-skimming is when a hacker uses malicious JavaScript code to steal your information at online checkout pages. All in real-time.

Here’s a quick example: Let’s say you’re buying a new bicycle as a gift for someone. You find your bike online on a legitimate website, but after you go to the checkout page and type in your information, the hacker grabs it. Unfortunately, formjacking is easy to inject, hard to detect and easy money, too.

It’s no surprise that cybercrime has been such a “profitable” business — in 2018 alone cyber criminals brought in $1.5 trillion in profits. By 2020, the average cost of just one data breach will exceed $150 million. And over the next five years, it could cost companies a whopping $5.2 trillion in additional costs and lost revenue.

With cyber attacks expected to increase, companies are preparing for battle by spending more money on cybersecurity to keep them at bay. Internationally, Gartner expects security spending to be more than $124 billion in 2019. That number is set to about double to $248 billion by 2023.

CyberArk Software Leads the Charge

There are a lot of cybersecurity companies out there that are trying to combat the rise in cyber attacks, but not all are created equal. The cybersecurity company that takes the cake is CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ:CYBR). It is leading the charge to protect businesses against cyber attacks.

The company provides privileged access security, which protects a business’ assets, data and infrastructure in the cloud, development pipeline and in-house. It’s a complete security solution that allows CyberArk Software’s customers to prevent cyber attacks, not just react to them.

As a result, CyberArk Software’s security solutions are in top demand. About half of the Fortune 500 and more than 30% of the Global 2000 turn to CyberArk to protect their business against malicious cyber attacks. The company partners with more than 4,200 businesses around the world, and it has offices in the U.S., U.K., Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

So, it’s no surprise that CyberArk receives an A-rating in Portfolio Grader:

As you can see, it receives a B-rating for its Fundamental Grade and an A-Rating for its Quantitative Grade. So, fundamentals are strong and the smart money is still pouring into this stock.

Case in Point: The stock soared 11% at the open following its strong third-quarter earnings results on Thursday. During the third quarter, total revenue jumped 28% year-over-year to $108.1 million, topping estimates for $103.08 million. License revenue accounted for $57.9 million, and the company noted that it also signed 200 new customers in the quarter.

Third-quarter earnings increased 35.4% year-over-year to $25.6 million, or $0.65 per share, up from $17.8 million, or $0.48 per share. Analysts were looking for earnings of $0.47 per share, so CYBR posted a 38.3% earnings surprise.

And looking forward to the fourth quarter, CyberArk Software expects total revenue between $125 million and $127 million, or 15% to 16% annual revenue growth. Earnings per share are forecast to be between $0.78 and $0.82. This guidance is nicely higher than the current consensus estimate, which calls for fourth-quarter earnings of $0.68 per share and revenue of $123.22 million.

Given this, I wouldn’t be surprised if the stock’s Fundamental Grade gets bumped to an A-rating next week, making it a rare AAA-rated stock.

I alerted this company to my Breakthrough Stocks subscribers back in February, and as of today, the stock is up a solid 25%. I expect it to continue trending higher as cybersecurity becomes a must for all companies across the world. It’s a potential takeover target, too. And as we grow more and more digital each day, I don’t expect that to take too long.

You can click here for my latest buy advice and updates on the company.