1 Magnificent Cybersecurity Stock That Might be a Better Value Than CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks
This company is helping to secure the artificial intelligence revolution, and its stock looks like a bargain.
The cybersecurity industry is facing an increasing threat from artificial intelligence, as hackers leverage AI to stage sophisticated attacks and businesses using chatbots and agents expose their valuable data. Tenable (TENB -1.99%) has seen its stock soar by 106% so far in 2026, outperforming the S&P 500's 13% growth. The company specializes in proactive exposure management, identifying vulnerabilities in corporate networks before they can be exploited.
Tenable's flagship product, Nessus, is widely deployed and accurate in detecting vulnerabilities, but its latest offering, Tenable One, tackles the new challenges of AI-driven attacks. Tenable One integrates various solutions into a comprehensive exposure management platform, powered by AI agents that scan networks, build risk dashboards, and schedule remediation.
It even includes a tool called AI Exposure, which tracks sensitive assets accessed by internal AI applications and monitors employee usage to uncover prompt injection attacks – a method hackers use to trick AI chatbots into revealing sensitive data.
The company has over 40,000 enterprise customers, with 5,000 adopting the Tenable One platform, a 67% increase from a year ago. Tenable generated $276.4 million in revenue during the third quarter, surpassing forecasts and marking a 9.5% year-over-year increase. Despite managing costs, operating expenses rose by 5.2%, but GAAP net income grew by 400% to $11.3 million, with adjusted (non-GAAP) net income reaching $72.9 million, an 41.8% increase from the previous year.
At a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 5.5, Tenable is cheaper than the Nasdaq-100 index (P/S ratio of 6.7) and its peers in the cybersecurity space, which range between 7.8 and 50.8. The significant gap between Tenable's P/S ratio and those of its competitors, particularly CrowdStrike, suggests there is room for upside. Therefore, Tenable could be an attractive investment for those seeking cybersecurity exposure at a reasonable price as AI reshapes the threat landscape.
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