As the eventful 2017 comes to a close, we believe this is the right time to make your investment plans for the upcoming year. Among the various industries, we prefer cybersecurity stocks due to their remarkable run on the bourse, so far this year. The ETFMG Prime Cyber Security ETF (HACK – Free Report) is up 18.7% in the year-to-date period.
A series of cyber attacks kept cybersecurity stocks hot throughout the year. Earlier in the year, there were two back-to-back ransomware attacks — WannaCry or WannaCrypt in May and Petya in June — followed by the massive data breach at Equifax (EFX – Free Report) in September. In addition to these, the disclosed data theft and ransom paid by Uber last month has further fueled the momentum.
Notably, these data breaches were a reality check, showing how cyber attacks can escalate companies’ market and operational risks as well as tarnish the brand image. Hence, the firms now understand the immediate need for stricter security measures, which, we believe, will compel companies to further increase spending on cyber security.
Per a recently-released report by Gartner, global enterprise security spending will reach $96.3 billion in 2018 — marking 8% growth from the 2017 expected level of $89 billion. Another market research firm, Markets and Markets in its July 2017 report stated that worldwide cybersecurity spending will likely reach $137.85 billion in 2017 and $231.94 billion by 2022.
Encouragingly, cybersecurity companies will be the ultimate gainers due to this elevated spending. Here, we have picked three stocks which have the potentials to make the most of this opportunity and retain their impressive share price momentum in 2018 as well.
FireEye Inc. (FEYE – Free Report) is a specialized provider of security platform against cyber-attacks to enterprises and governments. The company’s continued efforts toward bringing in new and advanced products have been attracting a wide range of customers.
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