This Tech Analyst Loves Cybersecurity Stocks in 2017

The following is part of our interview with Sean Udall of Quantum Trading Strategies on Benzinga's PreMarket Prep show from December 30 (lightly edited for clarity). 

Joel Elconin: Alright, so we’re on the line with Sean Udall here. He’s the CIO of Quantum Strategies, a frequent guest on our show. So let’s go back to my question. One stock that you’ve got to buy today or January 3rd and you’re going to hold it for the whole year. What is it going to be?
Sean Udall: I’m going to say FireEye Inc FEYE. FireEye is almost like NVIDIA Corporation NVDA on the other side. So what’s interesting about FireEye, and I’ll make this real short, really the chart has started getting better. They had two quarters in a row which have been relatively good...it’d get a little pop and then does nothing. Just does nothing.

But the bottom line is, to me, I’m just picking a stock in a secular space that I think would be pretty explosive next year. Really, this would probably be for about six quarters. I think you can get 4-6 good quarters out of the whole cybersecurity space. FireEye, you could interject the Cyberark Software Ltd CYBR or keep it in. A stock I don’t even like which I think is a good buy here is Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW. I will not hold that a whole year though, but I think Palo Alto is going to have a good move and that’s a stock I was saying was a short, I think [will move] roughly 50 or 60 points higher.

Joel Elconin: Why do you think the street’s ignoring these? I know there had been some takeout rumors. What’s wrong with the Street here? Why aren’t they interested in these stocks?

Sean Udall: I think part of it is, I mean, by the way we could interject Twitter Inc TWTR. We could interject Splunk Inc SPLK. Splunk is another name I like tremendously. I think something's happened this year which we haven’t seen for a lot of years. I think we’ve had a tremendous amount of tax-loss selling. Interestingly, as weird as 2015 ended, we didn’t really have a ton of tax-loss selling. In 2013 and 2014 you don’t have a lot because those are more winning years. This is the year I almost think there are people tax-loss selling Twitter, not from buying it this year, but from buying it a year ago. Same thing with FireEye. That stock has done nothing but be sold off almost the whole month of December. I’ve seen . . .
Joel Elconin: Got it up yea, $45. It went to $56.
Sean Udall: That would be a close second or third. But see here’s the thing, I really believe cyber security stocks could have a really major move again.

Listen to the complete interview with Sean Udall at 43:35 in the clip below.