Cybersecurity Stocks Plummet Amid AI Disruption Fears
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 4 days ago
0mins
Should l Buy S?
Source: CNBC
- Market Panic Intensifies: Cybersecurity stocks faced a sell-off due to fears of AI disruption, with the iShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF (IHAK) dropping over 3% on Friday, while major players like CrowdStrike and Cloudflare fell around 8%.
- Investor Reaction Misaligned: Despite Anthropic's launch of the Claude Code Security tool, UBS believes there is little overlap with major cybersecurity companies' revenue streams, indicating that the market's reaction is more panic-driven than based on reality.
- Poor Company Performance: Month-to-date, CrowdStrike has lost over 20% of its value, Okta is down nearly 18%, and Zscaler has shed 28%, reflecting a trend of indiscriminate selling within the sector.
- Long-Term Investment Opportunities: Despite short-term pressures, JPMorgan sees these companies as investment opportunities, with analysts noting that CrowdStrike, Okta, and Zscaler may benefit from high demand for cybersecurity as AI adoption increases.
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Analyst Views on S
Wall Street analysts forecast S stock price to rise
21 Analyst Rating
13 Buy
8 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 13.480
Low
16.00
Averages
21.11
High
28.00
Current: 13.480
Low
16.00
Averages
21.11
High
28.00
About S
SentinelOne, Inc. is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cybersecurity provider. The Company’s Singularity Platform delivers AI-powered autonomous threat prevention, detection, response, and exposure management capabilities across an organization’s endpoints, cloud workloads, and identity credentials. The Company’s Singularity platform ingests, correlates, and queries petabytes of structured and unstructured data from a myriad of ever-expanding disparate external and internal sources in real time. Its distributed AI models run both locally on every endpoint and every cloud workload, as well as on its cloud platform. The Company through PingSafe Pte. Ltd. (PingSafe), which is a cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) to bolster its cloud security product suite. By adding PingSafe’s CNAPP to its Cloud Workload Security (CWS), it provides enterprises with a comprehensive cloud security coverage that drives security, improved posture, and autonomous protection.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
Insight Holdings Fully Exits SentinelOne Position Amid Market Challenges
- Complete Exit: According to a February 17, 2026 SEC filing, Insight Holdings Group, LLC sold its entire position of 8,425,026 shares in SentinelOne during Q4, with an estimated transaction value of $148.36 million, indicating a significant loss of confidence in the company.
- Poor Market Performance: As of February 17, 2026, SentinelOne's stock was priced at $13.40, down 45% over the past year, significantly underperforming the S&P 500 by 57.88 percentage points, reflecting widespread pessimism in the cybersecurity sector.
- Portfolio Reallocation: This transaction reduced Insight Holdings' stake in SentinelOne from over 9% to just 0.7%, suggesting a strategic shift away from the cybersecurity sector, likely due to the company's ongoing losses and the industry's overall poor performance.
- Uncertain Profitability Outlook: Despite a relatively low price-to-sales ratio of less than 5, SentinelOne's continuous net losses and lack of a clear path to profitability have led investors to adopt a cautious stance, with Insight's exit further underscoring the market's lack of confidence in the company's future.
See More
Cybersecurity Stocks Plummet Following Product Launch
- Severe Market Reaction: Following Anthropic's announcement of 'Claude Code Security' on February 20, cybersecurity stocks experienced a rapid decline, leading to a seven-week losing streak for the sector, represented by the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (NASDAQ:CIBR), marking the longest downturn since 2015 and reflecting investor concerns about the industry's outlook.
- Product Impact Analysis: Although Bank of America analyst Madeline Brooks believes the market reaction may be exaggerated, she acknowledges that the launch of Claude Code Security has indeed shaken investor confidence in cybersecurity stocks, particularly given the tool's focus on pre-production code scanning, which could affect developers' security processes.
- Technological Advantages Remain: Brooks emphasizes that major cybersecurity platforms still possess structural advantages, collecting vast amounts of proprietary data from endpoints, networks, and cloud systems, providing visibility and real-time monitoring capabilities that AI tools cannot match, ensuring rapid threat response.
- Future Outlook: Despite the potential of AI tools to enhance security, Brooks argues that they serve more as augmentation layers rather than platform replacements, highlighting that diversified cybersecurity vendors remain best positioned in complex environments and will continue to maintain competitive strength in the future.
See More
Software Stocks Rebound as AI Fears Ease After Anthropic Event
- Software Stock Recovery: Following Anthropic's enterprise agents event, shares of Salesforce, Docusign, and LegalZoom rose by 4%, indicating a recovery in investor confidence as fears surrounding AI threats diminish.
- Product Launch: Anthropic's updates to Claude Cowork enable companies to integrate productivity tools into various applications like Salesforce and Intuit, enhancing applicability in sectors such as financial analysis and human resources, which contributed to stock price increases for related firms.
- Analyst Insights: Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that the competitive risk posed by AI to the software industry is overstated, asserting that existing software ecosystems and data environments will not be fully replaced by new AI tools, which helps stabilize market sentiment.
- Market Reaction: Despite recent pressures from AI tools on software and cybersecurity stocks, companies like CrowdStrike and Okta saw slight gains on Tuesday, reflecting a gradual market adaptation and rebound from AI-related fears.
See More
Anthropic Launches New AI Tools in Partnership with Major Enterprises
- New Tool Launch: Anthropic has unveiled AI tools that integrate with major enterprises like Salesforce, Intuit, and Docusign, allowing companies to incorporate Claude Cowork into various enterprise applications, thereby enhancing productivity and strengthening market competitiveness.
- Market Rebound: Following Anthropic's announcement of new partnerships, shares of Salesforce, Docusign, and Thomson Reuters rose by 4%, 4%, and 11% respectively, indicating a restoration of investor confidence in the software sector's outlook.
- Analyst Insights: Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that the threat of AI to the software industry has been overstated, arguing that existing software ecosystems and data environments will not be completely replaced by new tools, which alleviates market panic.
- Stock Market Fluctuations: Despite recent declines in software and cybersecurity stocks due to AI threats, companies like CrowdStrike and Okta saw their stock prices rebound after Anthropic's event, suggesting an increasing acceptance of AI tools in the market.
See More
Asia-Pacific Markets Volatile Amid Tariff Threats
- Tariff Threat Resurgence: President Trump announced on social media that countries engaging with the Supreme Court ruling will face higher tariffs, proposing a 15% global tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which could escalate international trade tensions and undermine global market confidence.
- Focus on China's LPR: Investors are closely watching China's loan prime rate (LPR) decision, particularly the one-year LPR as a benchmark for new commercial loans and the five-year LPR guiding property loans, which will directly impact financing costs and market liquidity in the Chinese economy.
- Mixed Performance in Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures fell to 26,869, below the previous close of 27,081.91, while South Korea's KOSPI dropped 1.1%, indicating market concerns over economic outlook, despite Japan's Nikkei 225 rising by 0.77%.
- U.S. Market Impact: U.S. markets saw widespread declines on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1.66% and the Nasdaq Composite falling 1.13%, reflecting investor fears over AI potentially disrupting software companies, further affecting sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region.
See More
AI Concerns Trigger Market Volatility
- Market Fragility: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each dropped over 1% on Monday due to AI concerns, highlighting the market's sensitivity to tech stocks, prompting investors to exercise caution in the face of potential risks.
- Unemployment Rate Warning: A report from Citrini Research warned that if white-collar jobs are replaced by machines, unemployment could soar to 10%, triggering panic in the market and impacting investor confidence.
- Pressure on Enterprise Software Stocks: Companies like CrowdStrike and Salesforce faced significant declines due to fears of increased AI competition, with CrowdStrike dropping over 18% in just two days and Salesforce tumbling nearly 33% year-to-date, reflecting concerns over the viability of traditional SaaS business models.
- Cautious Investment Advice: Cramer advised investors to remain calm amid market volatility and avoid hasty decisions, emphasizing that poor investment choices could lead to greater losses in the current environment, calling for a more cautious investment strategy.
See More
Insight Holdings Fully Exits SentinelOne Position Amid Market Challenges
- Complete Exit: According to a February 17, 2026 SEC filing, Insight Holdings Group, LLC sold its entire position of 8,425,026 shares in SentinelOne during Q4, with an estimated transaction value of $148.36 million, indicating a significant loss of confidence in the company.
- Poor Market Performance: As of February 17, 2026, SentinelOne's stock was priced at $13.40, down 45% over the past year, significantly underperforming the S&P 500 by 57.88 percentage points, reflecting widespread pessimism in the cybersecurity sector.
- Portfolio Reallocation: This transaction reduced Insight Holdings' stake in SentinelOne from over 9% to just 0.7%, suggesting a strategic shift away from the cybersecurity sector, likely due to the company's ongoing losses and the industry's overall poor performance.
- Uncertain Profitability Outlook: Despite a relatively low price-to-sales ratio of less than 5, SentinelOne's continuous net losses and lack of a clear path to profitability have led investors to adopt a cautious stance, with Insight's exit further underscoring the market's lack of confidence in the company's future.
See More
Cybersecurity Stocks Plummet Following Product Launch
- Severe Market Reaction: Following Anthropic's announcement of 'Claude Code Security' on February 20, cybersecurity stocks experienced a rapid decline, leading to a seven-week losing streak for the sector, represented by the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (NASDAQ:CIBR), marking the longest downturn since 2015 and reflecting investor concerns about the industry's outlook.
- Product Impact Analysis: Although Bank of America analyst Madeline Brooks believes the market reaction may be exaggerated, she acknowledges that the launch of Claude Code Security has indeed shaken investor confidence in cybersecurity stocks, particularly given the tool's focus on pre-production code scanning, which could affect developers' security processes.
- Technological Advantages Remain: Brooks emphasizes that major cybersecurity platforms still possess structural advantages, collecting vast amounts of proprietary data from endpoints, networks, and cloud systems, providing visibility and real-time monitoring capabilities that AI tools cannot match, ensuring rapid threat response.
- Future Outlook: Despite the potential of AI tools to enhance security, Brooks argues that they serve more as augmentation layers rather than platform replacements, highlighting that diversified cybersecurity vendors remain best positioned in complex environments and will continue to maintain competitive strength in the future.
See More
Software Stocks Rebound as AI Fears Ease After Anthropic Event
- Software Stock Recovery: Following Anthropic's enterprise agents event, shares of Salesforce, Docusign, and LegalZoom rose by 4%, indicating a recovery in investor confidence as fears surrounding AI threats diminish.
- Product Launch: Anthropic's updates to Claude Cowork enable companies to integrate productivity tools into various applications like Salesforce and Intuit, enhancing applicability in sectors such as financial analysis and human resources, which contributed to stock price increases for related firms.
- Analyst Insights: Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that the competitive risk posed by AI to the software industry is overstated, asserting that existing software ecosystems and data environments will not be fully replaced by new AI tools, which helps stabilize market sentiment.
- Market Reaction: Despite recent pressures from AI tools on software and cybersecurity stocks, companies like CrowdStrike and Okta saw slight gains on Tuesday, reflecting a gradual market adaptation and rebound from AI-related fears.
See More
Anthropic Launches New AI Tools in Partnership with Major Enterprises
- New Tool Launch: Anthropic has unveiled AI tools that integrate with major enterprises like Salesforce, Intuit, and Docusign, allowing companies to incorporate Claude Cowork into various enterprise applications, thereby enhancing productivity and strengthening market competitiveness.
- Market Rebound: Following Anthropic's announcement of new partnerships, shares of Salesforce, Docusign, and Thomson Reuters rose by 4%, 4%, and 11% respectively, indicating a restoration of investor confidence in the software sector's outlook.
- Analyst Insights: Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that the threat of AI to the software industry has been overstated, arguing that existing software ecosystems and data environments will not be completely replaced by new tools, which alleviates market panic.
- Stock Market Fluctuations: Despite recent declines in software and cybersecurity stocks due to AI threats, companies like CrowdStrike and Okta saw their stock prices rebound after Anthropic's event, suggesting an increasing acceptance of AI tools in the market.
See More
Asia-Pacific Markets Volatile Amid Tariff Threats
- Tariff Threat Resurgence: President Trump announced on social media that countries engaging with the Supreme Court ruling will face higher tariffs, proposing a 15% global tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which could escalate international trade tensions and undermine global market confidence.
- Focus on China's LPR: Investors are closely watching China's loan prime rate (LPR) decision, particularly the one-year LPR as a benchmark for new commercial loans and the five-year LPR guiding property loans, which will directly impact financing costs and market liquidity in the Chinese economy.
- Mixed Performance in Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures fell to 26,869, below the previous close of 27,081.91, while South Korea's KOSPI dropped 1.1%, indicating market concerns over economic outlook, despite Japan's Nikkei 225 rising by 0.77%.
- U.S. Market Impact: U.S. markets saw widespread declines on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1.66% and the Nasdaq Composite falling 1.13%, reflecting investor fears over AI potentially disrupting software companies, further affecting sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region.
See More
AI Concerns Trigger Market Volatility
- Market Fragility: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each dropped over 1% on Monday due to AI concerns, highlighting the market's sensitivity to tech stocks, prompting investors to exercise caution in the face of potential risks.
- Unemployment Rate Warning: A report from Citrini Research warned that if white-collar jobs are replaced by machines, unemployment could soar to 10%, triggering panic in the market and impacting investor confidence.
- Pressure on Enterprise Software Stocks: Companies like CrowdStrike and Salesforce faced significant declines due to fears of increased AI competition, with CrowdStrike dropping over 18% in just two days and Salesforce tumbling nearly 33% year-to-date, reflecting concerns over the viability of traditional SaaS business models.
- Cautious Investment Advice: Cramer advised investors to remain calm amid market volatility and avoid hasty decisions, emphasizing that poor investment choices could lead to greater losses in the current environment, calling for a more cautious investment strategy.
See More
