Cyberark Defended At JP Morgan; Auty Tells Investors To Take A Step Back

• Cyberark Software Ltd CYBR shares are down 24 percent year-to-date, and are currently trading near their 52-week low of $31.50.
• JPMorgan’s Sterling Auty maintained an Overweight rating for the company, with a price target of $48.
• Cyberark’s robust performance and its plans to capitalize on growth opportunities in 2016 should bode well for the stock, Auty stated.

Cyberark reported robust quarterly results, while guiding to better than expected revenues for 2016. The company has a track record of under-promising and over-delivering, analyst Sterling Auty mentioned, while adding that this bodes well for the company in 2016.

The market reacted negatively since the consensus profitability did not reflect management’s commentary related to capitalizing growth opportunities in 2016.

“We think investors should take a step back and look at CYBR in context of the broader security stocks so they can see that CYBR generated the fastest year-over-year revenue growth in the December quarter,” Auty wrote.

Cyberark reported strong revenue growth of 41.8 percent for the December quarter and its operating margins stood at a robust 29.6 percent. The strong performance of the company warrants a higher multiple and should help drive shares up, the analyst commented.

Auty mentioned that 63 percent of the respondents of the 2016 security survey indicated that they would seek “a privilege security project in 2016.” Cyberark is expected to benefit from the bifurcation of high growth areas like privileged account security and the legacy security product areas.