BUZZ-Fortinet leads cybersecurity stocks; Crowdstrike manages Windows-outage in 2024

CrowdStrike CRWD.O shares are up ~37% this year, as the cybersecurity company impressed its investors and analysts by handling the July 19 Windows-outage, which disrupted internet services globally

Customers are benefiting from CRWD's "customer commitment packages" designed to boost customer relationships by offering flexible access to the company's products, analysts have said

Fortinet FTNT.O shares, which are up ~63% this year, have outperformed the cybersecurity stocks; analysts have said that the company has an opportunity in the mid-market segment

Palo Alto Networks' PANW.O shares are seen ending the year with ~25% gains, as it continues to benefit from consolidation efforts, standardizing security operations on a single platform

Among peers, Zscaler ZS.O down ~17%, SentinelOne down ~18% and Okta OKTA.O down ~12% this year, as they grapple with stiff competition from bigger rivals

Datadog DDOG.O shares up 19%, while Dynatrace DT.N down 0.6% this year

Cybersecurity companies have seen strong demand due to growing security incidents, which have hit companies including Microsoft MSFT.O, Walt Disney DIS.N and AT&T T.N this year

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru)

((Jaspreet.Singh@thomsonreuters.com ; https://twitter.com/i_jass))