CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. - now trading at $169.25, down 2.66% -, held the annual user conference called Fal.Con, which was attended by several analysts. The management also had an investor briefing there.
Alex Henderson, a Needham analyst, reiterated a "Buy" rating and a $225 price target. A few key themes served as the conference's focal points. With their platform, expertly crafted agents, and data lake/ThreatGraph, CrowdStrike delivers XDR.
Never having been an "Endpoint" company, CrowdStrike is a platform that was created specifically for the cloud to collect and analyze the necessary data to stop the intrusion.
Fal.Con highlighted many additional news items, including an expansion into various adjacencies, an extension of its Cloud Workload Protection products, and a new purchase in the External Attack Surface Management industry.
Based on 31 analyst ratings, CrowdStrike has an average rating of “Strong Buy”, with a rating score of 4.3/5. The average price target based on 12-month price target forecasts is $238.48, which represents a 40.9% upside potential. Analysts are projecting 12-month revenue to grow by 36.73%, while 12-month earnings are projected at 39.85%. The estimate for beta is 1.27. Based on 300 pieces of news and analysis pieces from leading financial publications, 55.29% represent positive sentiment about CrowdStrike.
Based on 31 analysts offering ratings for CrowdStrike, 92.59% give CrowdStrike a Positive rating (77.78% as Strong Buy, 14.81% as Buy), 3.7% give it a Neutral rating, and 3.7% give it a Negative rating.
In the last 3 months, the top 5 analysts forecasted ratings for CrowdStrike were as follows: 4/5 Positive, 1/5 Neutral. Price targets from these analysts ranged from $200 to $240, while their upsides ranged from 18.17% to 41.8%.
News and Outlook
CrowdStrike has grown to be a top independent security company in just over ten years. It has a market capitalization of almost $40 billion, yearly recurring revenue growth of nearly 60%, more than $2 billion in annual recurring revenue, very strong customer retention rates, and a path to $5 billion in revenue by the middle of the decade. The business is now a gold-standard pure-play cybersecurity enterprise with Palo Alto Networks Inc.
On September 21st during trading hours, 96,294 shares of CrowdStrike exchanged hands as compared to its usual turnover of 4,167,961 shares, for a gain of $2.11. The stock then increased in price to $175.98. Market capitalization for the stock is $41.07 billion, PE ratio is -234.64, and beta is 1.27. The one-year low and high prices for CrowdStrike are respectively $130.00 and $298.48. The company's fifty-day and 200-day moving averages are $185.53 and $185.89, respectively. The company's debt-to-equity ratio is 0.60, its quick ratio is 1.80, and its current ratio is 1.80.
On Tuesday, August 30, CrowdStrike most recently released its quarterly profit figures. The company outperformed Wall Street expectations by reporting better-than-expected results for the quarter and fiscal year 2019 guidance.
The company's quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.36 were $0.08 higher than the $0.28 average forecast. Compared to analyst forecasts of $516.44 million, the company's sales for the quarter came in at $535.15 million. CrowdStrike had a negative net margin of 9.45% and a negative return on equity of 12.96%. The company's revenue increased 58.5% from the previous year. The business generated ($0.21) EPS during the same time period last year. For the current fiscal year, on average, equities research analysts forecast that CrowdStrike will have -0.75 earnings per share.
CrowdStrike is anticipated to report earnings of $0.32 per share for the upcoming quarter, representing an increase of +88.2% from the same period last year. Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed by -37.7%.
Additionally, the consensus earnings forecast of $1.33 for the current fiscal year indicates a change of +98.5% from the previous year. This estimate has changed -by 12.3% over the past 30 days.
The consensus earnings estimate of $1.88 for the upcoming fiscal year is a shift of +41.2% from what CrowdStrike anticipated to report a year ago. The estimate has changed by 7.3% over the past month.
The consensus sales forecast for CrowdStrike, $574.57 million, indicates a year-over-year change of +51.2% for the current quarter. Estimates of $2.23 billion and $3.05 billion for the current and following fiscal years, respectively, show changes of +53.7% and +36.7%.
According to Matthew DiLallo of The Motley Fool, a rising stream of free cash flow is being generated by CrowdStrike. In the first half of its current fiscal year, the company generated a free cash flow of $293 million, which is 54% more than it did in the corresponding period last year. Its balance sheet is cash-rich in the meanwhile. It had $740 million in long-term debt that it had issued the previous year to take advantage of low-interest rates and $2.32 billion in cash and equivalents at the conclusion of the second fiscal quarter. There is a fast ratio of 1.7 as well. A corporation with a fast ratio above one has a balance sheet that is prepared to weather short-term economic disturbances and is able to pay off all of its short-term commitments within a year.
Because of its cash-rich balance sheet and expanding free cash flow, CrowdStrike has the financial freedom to keep pursuing acquisitions and product innovation. Large-scale endeavors are encouraged by their sound financial standing, which in turn helps the firm succeed.
For instance, CrowdStrike estimated that the TAM for its product offerings at the time was $25 billion when it had its initial public offering in 2019. The company's TAM has increased to over $58 billion as a result of a combination of organic market expansion, new product initiatives, and acquisitions. In the following two years, it anticipates that figure to increase to over $71 billion, driven entirely by organic market growth. The business should seek to seize that important chance in the future.
CrowdStrike, though, isn't content to sit on its success. By 2025, the cloud security provider expects that new products and other activities will have increased TAM to $126 billion. By investing in product innovation, which includes making strategic acquisitions to increase its capabilities, it is advancing toward that larger market opportunity.
Reposify will be acquired by the firm for an undisclosed sum of cash, along with certain shares and options that are subject to vesting restrictions, according to a recent announcement made by the company. Reposify offers a framework for managing external attack surfaces. It will broaden CrowdStrike’s offering of threat intelligence, security, and IT operations products, giving clients a clearer picture of the dangers they face. As a result, CrowdStrike should be better able to acquire, hold onto, and develop its customer base, increasing its capacity to seize a larger share of the huge and expanding cloud security market opportunity.
The $400 million sale for Humio early last year, which opened the door to the $4.5 billion log management business, was also the most well-known transaction. In order to get a competitive edge in the $3.4 billion data protection sector, CrowdStrike also bought SecureCircle.
CrowdStrike has partnered with Salt Security in addition to investing in the latter. In accordance with the terms of their cooperation, the two businesses will collaborate on cutting-edge technologies to apply API discovery and runtime protection to apps, enabling security testing to fortify APIs before they are made public. CrowdStrike has already made investments through Fallon Fund in a number of security start-ups, including Dig Security, JumpCloud, and Talon Security.
The goal of CrowdStrike’s strategic investment arm is to create an ecosystem of next-generation security providers. The ecosystem will make it possible for clients to seamlessly integrate security solutions with them in order to meet their needs for protection against a continually changing threat environment.
CrowdStrike unveiled Asset Graph, its newest graph database, in June of this year. To protect IT operations from breaches, the database dynamically stores and analyzes complex interactions across assets, giving graphic visualizations of asset relationships, such as those between devices, users, accounts, applications, cloud workloads, and operational technologies.
The aforementioned elements are responsible for CrowdStrike’s financial success. The company's most recent second-quarter fiscal 2023 results showed sales growth of 58% year over year to $535.2 million, exceeding the $517.1 million Zacks Consensus Estimate. In addition, subscription revenue increased by 60% from the previous year to $506.2 million. During the quarter under review, the company added 1,741 net new subscription subscribers. As of July 31, 2022, it had 19,686 subscription customers in total, which represented a 51% increase from the previous year.
Recent reports regarding the business have also been published by research analysts, says MarketBeat. On June 3rd, DA Davidson lowered their "buy" rating and target price for CrowdStrike shares from $280.00 to $235.00. Reiterating a "buy" recommendation, JMP Securities set a target price of $275.00. Additionally, in a report on August 31st, Deutsche Bank increased their price objective on CrowdStrike from $225.00 to $230.00 and maintained their "buy" rating on the stock.
Additionally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their "buy" rating and raised their target price for CrowdStrike from $220.00 to $225.00. Last but not least, in a study on Wednesday, August 31st, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CrowdStrike from $215.00 to $217.00 and rated the stock as "overweight."
About Crowdstrike Holdings, Inc.
Protection for endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data is offered by CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. Threat hunting, managed security services, IT operations management, threat intelligence, Zero Trust identity protection, and log management are among the services it provides. The company's direct sales staff, which makes use of its network of channel partners, primarily sells subscriptions to its Falcon platform and cloud modules. It caters to clients all over the world.
The business is situated in Austin, Texas, and was incorporated in 2011.
The stock is rated "Strong Buy" by the 31 Wall Street analysts who cover CrowdStrike.
Out of 31 analysts, 77.78% are recommending CRWD as a Strong Buy, 14.81% are recommending CRWD as a Buy, 3.7% are recommending CRWD as a Hold, 0% are recommending CRWD as a Sell, and 3.7% are recommending CRWD as a Strong Sell.
According to Zacks' own research, CrowdStrike is presently ranked #3 (Hold). Furthermore, valuation indicators indicate that CrowdStrike might be overpriced. It would not be a good choice for value investors, according to its Value Score of F.
The consensus price prediction for CrowdStrike from the 31 analysts providing 12-month price projections is 234.50, with a high estimate of 385.00 and a low estimate of 193.00. From the most recent price of 169.47, the median projection reflects a rise of +38.37%.
CrowdStrike may be a poor, high-risk alternative for a one-year investment if you're seeking stocks with a nice return. Although the price of a share is currently $169.25, your investment could lose value in the future. However, Wall Street analysts generally believe that CrowdStrike’s share price will increase to $234.82 by September 2023. According to this, the share price could increase by 38.74% from its present level of $169.25.
The CEO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, a top supplier of services, threat intelligence, and next-generation endpoint security, is George Kurtz.Kurtz is a well-known author, entrepreneur, lecturer, and security expert on a global scale. He has more than 29 years of expertise in the security industry, including a lot of knowledge about boosting sales and expanding businesses all over the world.
What makes Crowdstrike safe and reliable as an antivirus?
CrowdStrike focuses on one thing – superior defense. The people, procedures, and technologies that power modern business are safeguarded by CrowdStrike; a single agent solution that uses top-tier security know-how and extensive industry knowledge to thwart breaches, ransomware, and cyber-attacks. Additionally, CrowdStrike has a platform that is cloud-native and offers a full range of security features, such as network protection, threat intelligence, endpoint protection, detection, and response. Customers may rapidly and simply install security at scale with this platform.
The business's cutting-edge technology, extensive experience in the field of cybersecurity, and solid alliances with other top security providers all contribute to its success. Through its Falcon platform, CrowdStrike operates on a subscription-based revenue model. Customers have the freedom to select the features and services they require and only pay for what they really use with this approach.
AV-Comparatives discovered that as of 2022, CrowdStrike protection prevented 96.6% of the threats thrown at it when it came to actual online attacks, such as those from websites known to host dangers. Moreover, CrowdStrike banned 99.6% of malware-infected files.
Disclaimer: The opinions and data expressed in this article are solely those of the cited sources and third-party data providers. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
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