Amid a market with a historically high S&P 500 valuation, investor focus is shifting toward resilient sectors. Cybersecurity firms Fortinet, Zscaler, and Cloudflare are gaining attention due to strong industry growth projections and specific investment alerts.
Best cybersecurity stocks to buy for long-term in October 2025
The S&P 500 is trading near its record high with a price-to-earnings ratio of 31, a historically elevated level prompting a shift from some high-growth tech stocks. The cybersecurity industry is viewed as an evergreen alternative, as customers rarely cut digital defenses to save money despite macroeconomic headwinds.
Market projections from Fortune Business Insights support this view, forecasting the global cybersecurity market will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.4% from 2025 to 2032. This long-term secular trend makes companies with clear competitive advantages attractive for investment.
Fortinet
Fortinet, a traditional play in the sector, serves over 890,000 customers and is a top global cybersecurity company. It originated with a specialization in next-generation firewalls, which upgrade traditional firewalls by adding advanced network filtering tools to their core function.
From that foundation, the company expanded its offerings into an ecosystem it calls the “Security Fabric.” This platform is not a single product but an integrated suite of more than 50 distinct enterprise cybersecurity products, designed to provide a unified security architecture.
A key differentiator for Fortinet is its in-house production of custom chips that power its hardware and software. The company claims this approach allows its platforms to operate with greater efficiency and performance than competitors that rely on off-the-shelf components.
Fortinet expects its long-term growth to be propelled by the convergence of the cybersecurity, networking, and hybrid cloud markets. Analyst forecasts reflect this, projecting its revenue will grow at a 12% CAGR from 2024 to 2027, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) growing at an 11% CAGR.
The company’s enterprise value currently stands at $60.3 billion. This figure values Fortinet’s stock at 22 times its projected adjusted EBITDA for the upcoming year, a multiple not considered expensive given its steady growth forecasts and market position.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare represents a forward-thinking play, operating one of the world’s largest content delivery networks (CDNs). A CDN’s function is to accelerate website performance by storing cached data on edge networks closer to users, reducing data travel time from an origin server.
The company’s extensive network serves data from 330 cities across more than 125 countries and processes an average of 78 million HTTP requests per second. The network also has a security function, shielding websites from bot-based attacks through human verification tools.
Cloudflare has a long-term goal to become the internet’s “water filtration system,” a fundamental security layer that reduces the need for other cybersecurity tools. Its Workers AI platform, launched over two years ago, lets developers build AI applications directly on its edge network.
The firm’s growth is fueled by trends such as rising internet speeds, increasing global internet penetration, and the demand for media- and AI-intensive websites. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue to grow at a 27% CAGR and its adjusted EBITDA at a 34% CAGR.
With an enterprise value of $75 billion, Cloudflare’s stock is valued at 121 times next year’s adjusted EBITDA. While this is not a cheap valuation, the premium may be justified if the company successfully continues to expand its sticky ecosystem for websites and developers.
The investment service Stock Advisor occasionally issues “Double Down” alerts for companies its analysts believe are “about to pop,” serving as potential short-term catalysts. The service is currently issuing such alerts for three companies, with reports indicating Zscaler and Cloudflare are subjects of this focus.
Zscaler
Zscaler offers a different model, a cloud play that develops “zero trust” security tools. This security principle treats every user and device as a potential threat by default, requiring strict verification for each access request instead of trusting connections from within a network perimeter.
Unlike firms using on-site appliances, Zscaler provides its tools as cloud-native services. This model is considered “stickier” and is easier to scale as an organization expands. The company serves more than 7,700 customers and secures over 500 billion transactions daily.
The market for these services is projected to expand. Research from Grand View Research anticipates the global zero-trust services market will grow at a 16.6% CAGR between 2025 and 2030, driven by companies defending against internal threats like corporate spies and disgruntled employees.
For fiscal years 2025 to 2028, analysts project Zscaler’s revenue will grow at a 21% CAGR and its adjusted EBITDA at a 25% CAGR. Its enterprise value is $43.4 billion, valuing it at 50 times this year’s adjusted EBITDA, a premium justified by the zero-trust market’s growth potential.
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