Nick Mersch, CFACrowdStrike HoldingsCRWDBUY ON WEAKNESSAug 20, 2026

Trades at 15-20x revenue, so the market expects strong growth for five years without AI disruption or hiccups. Prefers MSFT at a much-lower PE.

(The theme of today's Top Picks is cybersecurity, which is going to be big deal. All of the AI systems will have to be made more secure. Each of today's picks has already had a good run.)

12-month price target of $192. Scale in and buy some here today, some more in the low $170s, and the final tranche in the low $160s. Very competitive area, but its advantage is its global reach. No dividend.

Their 4-for-1 split took effect today. Cybersecurity stocks are no longer treated like software. Their forward PE is 127x. Look at the software names more than the Mag 7.

Cloud services are using a lot of cybersecurity names, which reported good earnings. CRWD's balance sheet continues to improve.

He loves the cybersecurity space but the stock has become very expensive. He advises to take a trading position and trim. It went parabolic a couple of weeks ago so they sold 25% at $758

It's 90x EBITDA or revenue--either is lunacy. Where does it go from here? He can't buy it at these levels.

Just bought it. Though software is underperforming, cybersecurity is strong. He shouldn't have sold this last February. Is up 48% this year. He's buying the momentum now. Don't be afraid of price when momentum is such a factor.

It reports today. You can't replace CWRD with Anthropic for most companies.

He wants to get back into the cybersecurity space. AI threats are increasing cyber budgets for governments and businesses. It has secular growth. He will go back into PANW or CRWD.

Though the industry is moving fast, cybersecurity is not going away anytime soon. AI fears are overdone. All players will have to evolve by absorbing large language models into their offerings. Need to have some exposure, and this name is one of the top choices.

It's been on fire since its second bottom a month ago, rising on strong volume. And there's strong institutional buying. Lang targets $600 and revisit old highs first.

The past year, it was making higher highs and higher lows, then fell. But is moving higher recently. Is a decent change it could hit its last high. But there will be sellers at $490. It the stock breaks that, it could move into the $500s. Could be an aggressive play.

Anthropic isn't a threat, but is really a tailwind. These cyber stocks won't jump tight back up in this difficult market, though.