SentinelOne appears undervalued relative to its expected revenue growth. Analysts forecast 19.2% NTM revenue growth, versus 23.2% for CrowdStrike, which trades at a premium on forward EV/sales. x.comÂ
Sergey
Growth Investor, Author of Compounding Your Wealth
CrowdStrike may distinguish itself from an expensive cybersecurity group by showing more breakneck growth at earnings next month. Fortinet's slowing product revenue exposed how much relentless execution investors had priced into the group's extreme multiples, pulling CrowdStrike down in sympathy. CrowdStrike remains in a higher tier than Fortinet, which itself ranks above SentinelOne. x.com x.comÂ
CrowdStrike's growth is too slow to justify its valuation. Its forward P/E has climbed to about 190, while stock-based compensation exceeds operating earnings, so reported free cash flow margins do not show what the business actually earns. x.com x.com x.com x.comÂ
SentinelOne should be crushed because it offers the same sort of product as CrowdStrike, just worse, and CrowdStrike's flywheel keeps widening the moat between them. The open question is whether cybersecurity is a follow-the-leader market or supports multiple long-term winners, with niche players such as Rubrik and Zscaler and formidable ones such as Cloudflare and Palo Alto Networks. x.comÂ
CrowdStrike is a hard pass at its current valuation, priced for perfection and then some for just 26% growth on an already large revenue base. It trades at 35x forward revenue, 102x forward free cash flow, 113x forward EV/EBITDA and 166x forward earnings. x.comÂ
CrowdStrike at 40x forward sales is hard to take seriously as a best idea into 2027. x.comÂ
SentinelOne is a pathetic company because it still runs -23% GAAP margins at about $1B of ARR while growing roughly 20%. Comparable software companies grew 40%+ at that scale while losing less money on a GAAP basis. Per @Sam_Badawi, Q4 revenue rose 20% to $271.2M and ARR 22% to $1.12B, with FY2027 revenue guided to $1.195-1.205B. x.com x.com x.comÂ
SentinelOne's growth is solid and profits are starting to pour in, yet the stock trades at only 5x forward sales. It reported $56M of net new ARR, with total ARR of $1.218B, up 22% year over year. Matching CrowdStrike's net new ARR jump would have required about $65M; per @SergeyCYW, CrowdStrike added a record $333M, up 50.5%. x.com x.com x.comÂ
CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks need 50%-plus growth to deliver even a 10% IRR over a realistic horizon, but almost no conceivable case gets them there. They feel as dumb as Zoom and Peloton in 2021. Even if revenue doubles over four to five years, Palo Alto would still trade at 10x revenue and CrowdStrike at 20x, leaving little prospect of a real IRR; Palo Alto is growing in the teens today. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Security software is arguably more of an AI bubble than semiconductors. Firms are bid up to nosebleed multiples on moderate AI-related revenue acceleration while facing medium- to long-term risks from Microsoft, Google and the AI labs and a 10-year Treasury yield above 5%. Their forward P/Es rest on non-GAAP earnings that exclude large stock compensation. A reversal could come from results missing high buy-side bars, security share gains by Microsoft or Google, or AI lab security launches. x.com … Show more
Anthropic and OpenAI's inevitable move into cybersecurity threatens CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks' valuations. They look like the market's biggest bubble stocks right now; CrowdStrike trades at 40x ARR despite 25% growth and negative GAAP EBIT. x.com x.comÂ