Seeking Alpha: Palo Alto Networks Trying To Win Back Wall Street's Love

It's so common as to be practically cliché - a young tech company with disruptive technology comes out as a hot stock, gets sell-side analysts racing to put out ever-higher targets, stumbles, and then has to spend some time in the penalty box before it wins back institutional investor love. We can argue about the extent to which Palo Alto Networks (PANW) has followed exactly that pattern, but I think the relative performance of "new security" firms like Palo Alto and Fortinet (FTNT) is pretty striking relative to "old security" firms like Check Point Software (CHKP).

I've long been a die-hard supporter of Check Point Software, but I'm actually wondering whether Palo Alto may be the better buy for the time being. True, the company does have to deal with litigation brought against it by Juniper (JNPR), and that may lead some investors to step aside pending a resolution. Likewise, the recovery in IT spending that seems to be emerging could go away with little warning. Even so, I think Palo Alto has a meaningfully better mousetrap in enterprise security and I think the shares may be undervalued to a worthwhile extent today.

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Palo Alto Networks Trying To Win Back Wall Street's Love