3 Cybersecurity Stocks You Can Buy and Hold for the Next Decade

As the S&P 500 hovers near its record high and trades at a historically high price-to-earnings ratio of 31, it might seem like the right time to shift away from higher-growth tech stocks. But within the tech sector, a few evergreen industries still exist that are worth investing in.

The cybersecurity market is one of those industries. The macro headwinds might make it harder for those companies to land new contracts, but their existing customers won't shut off their digital defenses to save a few dollars. That's why Fortune Business Insights expects the cybersecurity market to expand at a CAGR of 14.4% from 2025 to 2032.

To capitalize on that secular trend, investors should pick cybersecurity companies that have strong growth, clear competitive advantages, and plenty of ways to expand over the next decade. I believe these three resilient stocks check all the right boxes: Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS), and Cloudflare (NYSE: NET).

The traditional play: Fortinet

Fortinet, which serves over 890,000 customers, is one of the world's top cybersecurity companies. It originally specialized in next-gen firewalls (which upgrade traditional firewalls with network filtering tools), but it gradually expanded its ecosystem into a "Security Fabric" of more than 50 different enterprise cybersecurity products.

Fortinet produces its own custom chips for its hardware and software. It claims that the difference allows it to operate more efficiently than its competing cybersecurity platforms, which use off-the-shelf components. It expects the convergence of the cybersecurity, networking, and hybrid cloud markets to drive its long-term growth.

From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to grow at a steady CAGR of 12% and 11%, respectively. With an enterprise value of $60.3 billion, its stock isn't expensive at 22 times next year's adjusted EBITDA -- and it should climb higher over the next decade.

The cloud play: Zscaler

Zscaler develops "zero trust" tools, which treat everyone in an organization as a potential threat. But unlike older cybersecurity companies that install those tools through on-site appliances, Zscaler provides its tools as cloud-native services -- which are stickier and easier to scale and maintain as an organization expands.

Zscaler now serves more than 7,700 customers and secures over 500 billion transactions each day. Grand View Research expects the global zero trust services market to expand at a CAGR of 16.6% from 2025 to 2030 as more companies shore up their defenses against internal threats like corporate spies and disgruntled employees. With its sticky subscription plans and early mover's advantage in this niche space, Zscaler should reap the benefits of that secular expansion.

From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028 (which ends in July 2028), analysts expect its revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at a CAGR of 21% and 25%, respectively. With an enterprise value of $43.4 billion, it might seem pricey at 50 times this year's adjusted EBITDA -- but the growth potential of the zero trust market justifies that higher valuation.

The forward-thinking play: Cloudflare

Cloudflare owns one of the world's largest content delivery networks (CDNs). CDNs accelerate the delivery of digital content on websites and apps by storing cached copies of that data on its edge networks -- which are usually closer to the users than the origin servers. It also shields websites from bot-based attacks with tools for verifying human users.

Cloudflare already serves data from 330 cities in over 125 countries, and it processes an average of 78 million HTTP requests each second. Over the long term, it expects to become a "water filtration system" for the internet, which reduces the need for traditional cybersecurity tools. Its Workers AI platform, which was launched just over two years ago, also enables developers to directly build AI apps on its edge networks.

From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and adjusted EBITDA to rise at a CAGR of 27% and 34%, respectively. That robust growth should be fueled by higher internet speeds, rising internet penetration rates, and more media- and AI-intensive websites. With an enterprise value of $75 billion, it isn't cheap at 121 times next year's adjusted EBITDA. But if you expect Cloudflare to keep roping more websites into its sticky ecosystem, then it might deserve its premium valuation.

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Cloudflare, Fortinet, and Zscaler. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.