Hot or Not, Stock Market Edition: 07/22/2025

From an internet security surge to fears of stellar stocks being overbought, here’s what we’re watching: 

• Hot: Okta (OKTA) gains amid an internet security surge; NRG Energy (NRG) receives sparkling upgrades
• Not: CoreWeave (CRWV) experiences growing pains; the market believes that Netflix (NFLX) may be overbought. 

P.S. For more stocks making moves, check out our new Zen Ratings Upgrades & Downgrades screener.

🔥 HOT: Cyber identity and access management company Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA) gained 3.6% on Friday in an overall green day for internet security companies. Okta is using new AI tools that promise to help businesses catch fraudulent activity more quickly, preventing data breaches and stolen credentials. Okta is positioned as a growth stock right now, with an A rating in our Growth metric and C ratings across all other categories. While that might not sound like a ringing endorsement, we believe in Okta’s ability to experience serious growth this quarter and beyond if it can prove to businesses that its AI tools are better than what its competition can offer. We give OKTA a B Zen Rating and a Buy recommendation.

🥶 NOT: CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) has been struggling for the last few weeks due to concerns over its ability to continue to grow at its current rate. Those fears were amplified on Friday after HSBC released a report that said, in no uncertain terms, that it believes CRWV is currently overvalued. The market reacted by selling hard, leading to a 7.0% drop for CRWV by the closing bell. Our analysis paints a similarly grim picture. We give CRWV an F rating in Sentiment and a D in Financials and Safety. Despite a ridiculous 212% gain so far this year, we believe that the time to sell is now and give CRWV a D Zen Rating and a Sell recommendation.

🔥 HOT: Back-to-back price target upgrades from Citigroup and Seaport Global Securities gave NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) a boost heading into the weekend. The stock gained 3.0% after Citigroup raised its price target to $188 per share from $133, one day after Seaport raised its target to $191 from $186. AI is consuming more power every month, and companies like NRG are in good shape to scale their production and capitalize on the higher demand. We’ll keep this simple: with B ratings in Growth, Momentum, Financials, and Sentiment, we expect big things from NRG in the near future. We give the stock an A Zen Rating and a Strong Buy recommendation.

🥶 NOT: Despite a positive second-quarter earnings report, the market believes that Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is still overbought. We tend to agree. The company’s core business is still strong, as reflected in its A rating in Financials. The issue, in our opinion, is the hard wall the company faces in terms of Growth. The elephant in the room is still the fact that Netflix stopped reporting subscriber numbers, a move it made earlier in the year that suggests that it’s not confident it can continue to drive new signups. In lieu of growing its subscriber base, Netflix is banking on growth through advertising and live events, something that we, and the market, apparently, are skeptical of. Netflix is still a solid company, but we’re not sure where it goes from here. We give NFLX a C Zen Rating and a Hold recommendation.

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