CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks hit record highs on Monday. Each rose more than 5%, after a week in which the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas turned into an argument about AI agents. CNBC’s Samantha Subin reported the move. CrowdStrike gained 11.32 points, or 5.28%. Palo Alto added 17.84 points, or 4.90%, and traded at $381.70 in the afternoon. The rest of the sector followed. Tenable and Rubrik rose more than 7%. Netskope and Zscaler each gained about 5%. A price target overtaken the same day BTIG lifted its price target on Palo Alto to $380 on Monday. The firm called that about 4% upside from Friday’s close. The stock passed it within hours. Palo Alto changed hands at $381.70 that afternoon, above a target raised the same morning. Buyers are repricing this sector faster than the analysts who cover it. CrowdStrike’s target went to $237, which BTIG put at 11% upside from Friday. Rubrik went to $109. None of the three revisions followed an earnings release. What changed at Black Hat BTIG’s analysts spent the conference talking to partners, vendors and customers. The consistent theme, they wrote, was that AI agents “have fundamentally changed the threat landscape.” They called the environment meaningfully worse than before. They also said the deployment of AI security tools sits “only in the early innings”. Cantor’s analysts reached a similar view. AI has moved “from being a cybersecurity feature to a key pillar” of both the attack surface and the infrastructure on either side of it, they wrote. The trade has a name on television too. Jefferies analyst Joseph Gallo argued last week that cyber spending will benefit from AI anxiety over the next couple of quarters. The week supplied its own evidence Black Hat did not lack for demonstrations. Researchers used the