In what may have been one of the easiest technology trades this year, the cybersecurity stocks that have taken a beating this summer have been reporting big numbers this week, and investors are re-entering the stocks at a furious pace.

In new research reports, Merrill Lynch analysts are very bullish on the prospects for the top cybersecurity software stocks, and with good reason. Whether it is the federal government, major U.S. and foreign corporations, the military or even sports teams, secure databases are being hacked and compromised at a furious pace, and protection is a must.

Check Point Software Technology

This company kicked off the cybersecurity software earnings with a bang this week. Check Point Software Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) is the top information technology (IT) name on the Merrill Lynch US 1 list, and on Wednesday reported second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates amid increasing demand for threat-prevention and mobile-security products. The Internet security provider reported a 9% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue to $395 million. Earnings per share (EPS) excluding items rose 11% to $0.99. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected EPS minus items of $0.95 and $392.5 million in revenue. An outstanding quarter by any measure.

Checkpoint is the largest pure-play security vendor globally, provides industry-leading solutions and protects customers from cyberattacks with an unmatched catch rate of malware and other types of attacks. Check Point offers a complete security architecture, defending enterprise networks to mobile devices, in addition to the most comprehensive and intuitive security management. Check Point protects more than 100,000 organizations of all sizes.

The Merrill Lynch price target for the stock is $94, and the Thomson/First Call consensus target is set at $92.43. The stock closed Thursday at $84.10.

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CyberArk Software

This company had a red-hot IPO last year and continued its breathtaking climb, only to fall almost 30% in a space of three weeks starting in mid-June. CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR) claims it is the only security company focused on eliminating the most advanced cyber threats, those that use insider privileges to attack the heart of the enterprise. The company proactively secures against cyber threats before attacks can escalate and do irreparable damage. Some 35% of the Fortune 100 and 17 of the world’s top 20 banks use the software to protect high value information assets, infrastructure and applications.

The Merrill Lynch team highlights the company’s unique and innovative technology that has a very large and rapidly growing market opportunity of somewhere near $2.1 billion. With software that is focused on protecting the privileged accounts, which are highly targeted in cyberattacks to disrupt networks and/or steal sensitive information, they also see the company growing revenues at an astonishing 25% for the next several years, and the potential for 25% to 30% operating margins.

The Merrill Lynch price target is set at $80, much higher than the consensus objective of $61.64. CyberArk closed Thursday up smartly at $61.72. The company is set to report August 11.

Fortinet

This company posted earnings Thursday that also walloped Wall Street estimates. Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) said that total revenue was $239.8 million for the second quarter of 2015, an increase of 30% from $184.1 million in the same quarter of 2014. Within total revenue, product revenue was $114.8 million, an increase of 34% compared to $85.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Service revenue was $125.0 million, an increase of 27% from $98.7 million a year ago. The bottom line is that the company crushed the numbers and raised guidance for the rest of the year. We covered the Fortinet earnings home run in depth, as analysts jumped on the bandwagon across Wall Street.

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The company’s fast, secure and global cybersecurity solutions provide broad, high-performance protection against dynamic security threats while simplifying the IT infrastructure. They are strengthened by the industry’s highest level of threat research, intelligence and analytics. Unlike pure-play network security providers, Fortinet can solve organizations’ most important security challenges, whether in networked, application or mobile environments, be it virtualized/cloud or physical. It has more than 200,000 customers worldwide.

Merrill Lynch raises the price target to $51, and the consensus target is $44.41. The shares closed up huge, almost 11%, Thursday to $46.83.

FireEye

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was another stock that was hit hard starting in June. The stock tumbled almost 18% in less than three weeks. It has been mentioned recently as a takeover target, with a lot of the chatter centering on Cisco, which claims it is not interested. The company recently announced that it will be working with Visa to help the credit card giant develop products for merchants and credit card issuers to defend against large-scale attacks on payment data. FireEye is in an arena where it may drive the next big wave of cybersecurity technology.

FireEye has invented a purpose-built, virtual machine-based security platform that provides real-time threat protection to enterprises and governments worldwide against the next generation of cyberattacks. These highly sophisticated cyberattacks easily circumvent traditional signature-based defenses, such as next-generation firewalls, IPS, anti-virus and gateways. The FireEye Threat Prevention Platform provides real-time, dynamic threat protection without the use of signatures, to protect an organization across the primary threat vectors and across the different stages of an attack life cycle. The core of the FireEye platform is a virtual execution engine, complemented by dynamic threat intelligence, to identify and block cyberattacks in real time. FireEye has more than 3,400 customers across 67 countries, including over 250 of the Fortune 500.

The Merrill Lynch target price is $60, and the consensus target is $52.93. The stock closed most recently at $48.73. Earnings are expected to be reported on July 30.

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The bottom line is this is the kind of technology organizations, regardless of size and scope, cannot afford to be without. The bears say it is too competitive and upgrades will slow. The fact is that cyber criminals continue to get more sophisticated and the software and protection will have to as well.

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