Will the Wiz Deal Impact These 3 Cybersecurity Stocks?

In major cybersecurity news last week, Google’s parent Alphabet [GOOGL] announced it will be spending $32bn on New York start-up Wiz, which provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions to big tech firms. It’s Alphabet’s biggest acquisition to date and comes after Wiz rebuffed a $23bn offer from the company last July.

Beyond how the deal will help Google Cloud to catch up with rivals Microsoft [MSFT] and Amazon’s [AMZN] AWS, there’s the question of how it might change the broader cybersecurity landscape. 

This stock analysis will look at how CrowdStrike [CRWD], Palo Alto Networks [PANW] and SentinelOne [S] might be impacted by the Wiz buyout. It will also highlight the three companies’ recent financial performance, as well as near-term catalysts and headwinds.

Wiz Fall-out?

In the wake of Google’s announcement, Jefferies analysts warned that the magnitude of the deal “emphasizes the mission criticality of cyber”, but warned that vendors, including CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne, could come under pressure in the near term. 

However, following discussions with CrowdStrike’s CFO Burt Podbere, the analysts are confident that the company won’t be threatened by the Wiz deal. According to a note by Jefferies, integrating Wiz’s technology into Google Cloud is likely going to take some time. This could lead to a demand for CrowdStrike’s architecture. 

Cybersecurity Stocks Sink Amid Broader Sell-Off

Both the CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks share prices have pulled back sharply from recording their all-time highs in February amid the broader stock sell-off. 

CRWD stock has dropped 10.92% in the past month to March 21 and has gained 9.95% in the past year. PANW stock is down 4.56% and up 26.8% in the respective periods. 

S stock is down 12.9% in the past month, having set a 52-week high back in December, and is down 17.54% in the past year. 

Guidance Disappoints 

SentinelOne’s share price tumbled back in December after missing Q3 2025 profit estimates and despite raising its full-year revenue guidance from $815m to $818m. The Sunnyvale, California-based company ended up reporting revenue of $821.5m on March 12, but its guidance of $228m for Q1 2026 disappointed investors. 

CrowdStrike’s share price dipped following its Q4 2025 report on March 4. Despite beating estimates, its profit guidance of $3.33–3.45 per share for 2026 was weaker than analysts’ forecast of $4.40 per share. 

Palo Alto Networks also offered weaker-than-expected Q3 earnings guidance in its Q2 2025 report on February 13. The Santa Clara, California-based company expects earnings per share of $0.76–0.77, slightly lower than the analysts’ consensus of $0.80. 

Here are how the fundamentals of the three stocks compare.

Source: Stockanalysis.com

All three companies are expected to see a dip in revenue in the next fiscal year. While SentinelOne is set to see the biggest drop, S stock currently looks the cheapest relative to its P/S ratio, while PANW may look overvalued.

The Investment Case  

CRWD Stock: The Bull Case 

CEO George Kurtz hailed the company’s resilience in bouncing back from the infamous outage that crippled IT systems globally last July. AI is becoming more important in preventing cyberattacks and will drive revenue growth in the long-term, he said on the Q4 earnings call.

“Q4 showcases the fruits of our labors, giving me strong conviction in our AI-native single platform, excellent execution and accelerating market opportunity,” Kurtz added. 

The company expects net new annual recurring revenue (ARR) to accelerate in the second half of the fiscal year. 

CRWD Stock: The Bear Case 

In the near term, at least, CrowdStrike’s free cash flow margins continue to be suppressed following the aftermath of the outage.

The margin was 23% in Q4 and 27% for the full fiscal year, well below the targeted 31%–33% target set out in the Q1 2025 presentation a month before the outage. 

PANW Stock: The Bull Case

On its Q4 2024 earnings call last August, CEO Nikesh Arora told analysts that “the recent outage has caused a number of customers to reevaluate their options”. The company has been having conversations with those looking to switch from CrowdStrike to Palo Alto Networks. 

Growth is being fueled by its platformization strategy, which is effectively the bundling of its products and services. Its next generation security (NGS) ARR came in at $4.8bn in the last quarter, up 37% year-over-year. The company reiterated its goal of achieving $15bn NGS ARR by 2030. 

PANW Stock: The Bear Case

While the platformization strategy appears to be delivering, Deutsche Bank analysts believe that any acceleration in NGS ARR is likely to be modest in the near-term, especially in comparison to growth rates of 44%, 45% and 24% reported in the previous three fiscal years. 

S Stock: The Bull Case

In the Q2 2025 earnings release last August, CEO Tomer Weingarten said that SentinelOne is “seeing a distinct rise in customer interest and appreciation” for its AI solutions following the CrowdStrike outage. 

ARR for Q4 2025 was $920.1m compared with $859.7m in Q3, the first full quarter following CrowdStrike’s outage, and $806.1m and $762m in Q2 and Q1 respectively. 

S Stock: The Bear Case

Analysts are concerned that SentinelOne could face industry-wide pricing pressures this year, as Reutersreported following the Q4 earnings. 

Smaller players in the endpoint security market, like SentinelOne, could be constrained as the bigger platforms, such as CrowdStrike and Palo Alto, slash their prices to attract new customers and get existing customers to renew their subscriptions. 

Conclusion

The near-term outlook for CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne looks sticky. However, as companies continue to invest in AI, they’re going to have to beef up their cybersecurity, and these three stocks might stand to be long-term gainers.