Chicago, IL – March 6, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares The AZEK Company Inc. AZEK as the Bull of the Day and Beazer Homes USA, Inc. BZH as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on — Okta, Inc. OKTA, Fortinet Inc. FTNT and CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
The AZEK Company Inc. recently beat on earnings and raised full year guidance. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is expected to grow revenue 8.3% this year.
The AZEK Company designs and manufactures low maintenance and environmentally sustainable outdoor living products including TimberTech Decking and Railing, Versatex and AZEK Trim, and StruXure pergolas.
Its products are made from up to 85% recycled material and primarily replace wood on the outside of homes.
Headquartered in Chicago, it operates manufacturing and recycling facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas.
On Feb 4, 2025, The AZEK Company reported its fiscal first quarter 2025 results and beat the Zacks Consensus by $0.03. Earnings were $0.17 versus the consensus of $0.14.
It was the 9th earnings surprise in a row.
Net sales rose 19%, or $45 million, to $285.4 million led by Residential Sales which rose 22% year-over-year.
Residential was boosted by double digit sell-through growth in the quarter and expanded market presence across the Deck, Rail & Accessories and Exteriors categories.
TimberTech remains the cornerstone of the business.
However, adjusted Gross Profit Margin declined year-over-year by 190 basis points to 37.4% compared to 39.3% in the same quarter in 2023.
The AZEK Company is bullish on the rest of fiscal 2025 as it has had new product launches which are generating excitement from their contractor and dealer partners.
These include TimberTech Fulton Rail, TimberTech Reliance Rail, Versatex XCEED siding and TrimLogic, an exterior trim product made with up to 95% recycled PVC material.
The company raised its full year net sales guidance to a range of $1.52 to $1.55 billion from its previous guidance of $1.51 to $1.54 billion.
Analysts are bullish too. 5 earnings estimates were revised higher in the last 30 days for fiscal 2025. That has pushed the Zacks Consensus up to $1.45.
That is earnings growth of 20.8% because The AZEK Company made $1.20 in Fiscal 2024.
Analysts are bullish about fiscal 2026 as well with 4 estimates being revised higher in the same period. That has pushed the Zacks Consensus up to $1.72, which is another 18.3% growth.
Shares of the AZEK Company have been volatile in 2025, following the trends of the market. But over the last 6 months, it is still outperforming that of the Vanguard S&P 500 Index (VOO).
The AZEK Company is not a value stock. It trades with a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 30.6. It has a Zacks Style Score of “F” which is the lowest Style Score you can have.
The AZEK Company also doesn’t pay a dividend.
But if you’re a growth investor looking for a company that is raising its guidance in 2025, The AZEK Company should be on your short list.
Beazer Homes USA, Inc. is feeling the changes in the housing market in 2025. This Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) is expected to see falling earnings this year.
Beazer Homes is a national homebuilder with a market cap of $674.9 million. It builds homes in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
On Feb 6, 2025, Beazer Homes announced it was accelerating its share repurchases due to the 2025 “share price dislocation.”
It’s share repurchase program, as of Feb 6, 2025, had approximately $24.8 million remaining.
The company reported fiscal first quarter 2025 earnings on Jan 30, 2025, and the stock sold off on the news.
Since that sell-off, Beazer Homes repurchased approximately $4.1 million of its shares at the weighted average price of $21.86.
"We believe accelerating the pace of our share repurchases makes a lot of sense. The ability to buy back our shares at a significant discount to book value represents a compelling investment opportunity and we plan to act on it,” said Allan P. Merrill, Chairman and CEO.
Given the acceleration of its share repurchase program, Beazer also announced that debt reduction, which it is committed to, would moderate in the near term.
On Jan 30, 2025, Beazer Homes reported its fiscal first quarter 2025 results and missed on the Zacks Consensus by $0.21. Earnings were $0.10 compared to the Zacks Consensus of $0.31.
That’s an earnings miss of 67.7%.
It’s also a rare miss for Beazer as it only has 2 earnings misses, including this one, in the last 5 years.
Revenue was up 20.9% to $460.4 million year-over-year driven by a 22.1% increase in home closings to 907 homes, partially offset by a 1% decrease in average sales price to $507,600.
The increase in closings was mainly due to higher volume of spec homes selling and closing during the quarter as well as improved construction cycle times.
Gross margins are a key metric for the homebuilders, even more than revenue. Adjusted gross margin was 18.2% in the quarter, down from 22.9% the prior year primarily due to an increase in price concessions and closing cost incentives, an increased share of spec home closings which generally have lower margins than “to be built” homes, and changes in product and community mix.
Beazer called the market a “challenging new home sales environment.”
Given the tough new home market, the analysts have gotten bearish on fiscal 2025.
1 estimate has been cut in the last 30 days, and 2 in the last 60 days, for the full year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has fallen to $3.49 from $4.44 in that period.
That’s a decline of 23% as Beazer Homes made $4.53 in fiscal 2024.
Here’s what it looks like on the 5-year price and consensus chart.
Beazer Homes shares continue to be weak in 2025 on fears about the housing market and the impact of tariffs. They are down 27.6% over the last 6 months.
Beazer Homes is now dirt cheap, with a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 6.2. A P/E ratio under 10 usually indicates a company is extremely cheap.
It also sports a PEG ratio of 0.3. A PEG under 1.0 usually indicates a company has both value and growth.
Beazer stepped in to buy its shares last month. But investors might want to wait for a turnaround in the earnings estimates before venturing in.
The cybersecurity landscape is growing complicated with every passing day, as cybercriminals are using a variety of techniques, including credential theft and abuse, remote desktop protocol attacks and social engineering-based initial access by exploiting vulnerabilities ranging from unpatched software to compromised credentials.
The advent of artificial intelligence has further complicated the task for traditional cybersecurity products based on signature-based threat detection. The use of AI enables cybercriminals to execute better adaptive attacks with automation and self-evolving malware, breaching security measures based on previously traced malware signatures. AI-generated deepfake voices have also made phishing attacks more efficient and scalable.
As cyberspace is growing unsafe, so is the demand growing for better and updated cybersecurity products that could shield organizations, enterprises and individuals against them. The global cybersecurity industry is experiencing massive growth fueled by the rise of ransomware and phishing attacks, the growing trend of remote and hybrid work culture necessitating endpoint security management and booming cloud security demand.
The overall cybersecurity market is expected to continue to grow, as suggested by the MarketsandMarkets report, projecting a robust CAGR of 9.4% from 2023 to 2028. This makes it an ideal time for investors to capitalize on this opportunity and maximize their returns.
Here we focus on three stocks — Okta, Inc., Fortinet Inc. and CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. — that are anticipated to benefit from this elevated spending.
Okta is a leading provider of identity security for enterprises. Okta’s Workforce Identity Cloud combines access management, identity governance and privileged access to provide a gateway that enables its workforce-based customers to securely connect to Okta’s applications from multiple devices. Okta’s Customer Identity Cloud provides bot detection, fraud prevention and account takeover attack protection. Both platforms offer Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication for secured connectivity.
Its Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud solutions are experiencing increased traction as a growing number of organizations are adopting digital transformation and cloud migration strategies. The company was serving 19,650 customers at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.
Okta anticipates its fiscal 2026 revenues to be in the range of $2.85-$2.86 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $2.79 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 6.5%. The company expects its fiscal 2026 earnings to be in the range of $3.15-$3.20 per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $2.91, indicating year-over-year growth of 3.6%. Okta has rallied 49.5% in the past six months compared with First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF’s return of 11.1%.
The company’s earnings surpassed Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 15.7%. OKTA carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Okta, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Okta, Inc. Quote
Fortinet provides firewall, virtual private networking, antivirus, intrusion prevention (IP), web filtering, anti-spam and wide area network (WAN) acceleration. The company offers Identity and Access Management through FortiToken and FortiAuthenticator. The company provides advanced threat protection through FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls, FortiGate Secure SD-WAN, FortiSandbox and FortiDeceptor. Its endpoint security solutions, including FortiCASB, FortiEDR and FortiClient, are also popular among organizations.
This comprehensive portfolio of security offerings enables the company to provide integrated protection against dynamic security threats while reducing security complexities and lowering the total cost of ownership. The company caters to more than 450,000 customers worldwide, which include most of the Fortune 100 companies.
Fortinet anticipates its fiscal 2025 revenues to be in the range of $6.65-$6.85 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $6.76 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 13.5%. The company expects its fiscal 2025 earnings to be in the range of $2.41-$2.47. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $2.43, indicating year-over-year growth of 2.5%.
FTNT carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. Fortinet has risen 42.1% in the past six months compared with First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF’s return of 11.1%. The company’s earnings surpassed Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 24.8%.
Fortinet, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Fortinet, Inc. Quote
CrowdStrike offers its cybersecurity services primarily through its Falcon platform that is acclaimed to be the industry’s first multi-tenant, cloud native, intelligent security solution that protects workloads across on-premise, cloud-based, and virtualized environments running on a variety of endpoints, such as desktops, laptops, servers, virtual machines, and IoT devices.
CrowdStrike’s cloud-based Falcon platform currently provides 22 cloud modules via a SaaS subscription model that is categorised under three categories — Endpoint Security, Security & IT Operations and Threat Intelligence. The contribution of subscription-based sales to the company’s total revenues increased from 72% in fiscal 2017 to 94% in fiscal 2024.
CrowdStrike anticipates its fiscal 2025 revenues to be between $3.9238 billion and $3.9305 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $3.93 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 28.6%. The company expects its fiscal 2025 earnings to be in the range of $3.74-$3.76. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $3.74, indicating year-over-year growth of 21%.
The company’s earnings surpassed Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 10.3%. CRWD carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. CRWD has rallied 47.8% in the past six months compared with First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF’s return of 11.1%.
CrowdStrike price-consensus-chart | CrowdStrike Quote
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Beazer Homes USA, Inc. (BZH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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The AZEK Company Inc. (AZEK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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