CrowdStrike Stock Earnings: CRWD advances 7% on solid quarter, generous guidance

• CrowdStrike beat fiscal Q4 consensus.
• CRWD stock rose 7% on the news.
• Cybersecurity added 1,873 net new customers.
• Annual recurring revenue climbed to $2.56 billion.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD) saw its stock pop 7% in Wednesday's premarket following the Tuesday evening release of another solid quarter. CrowdStrike produced $0.47 in adjusted earnings per share (EPS) on revenue of $637 million in the fiscal fourth quarter ending January 31.

On Wednesday Chair Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve will provide testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. CRWD could further react to statement from the Chair during Wednesday's regular session.

CrowdStrike stock news: Growth narrative not letting up

CrowdStrike managed to beat Wall Street expectations by $10.6 million or 1.7% on revenue and by 4 cents or 9.3% on adjusted EPS. The market focused on revenue growth and ignored the fact that GAAP EPS of $-0.20 missed by 2 cents. 

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew 48% YoY to $2.56 billion, while the digital security firm added $222 million in ARR during the quarter. CrowdStrike, popular for its suite of machine-learning anti-malware products used by corporations, added 1,873 net new customers during the quarter. It now has 23,019 total customers.

"Our conviction in CrowdStrike’s expansive opportunity continues to grow. We see a massive opportunity to leverage our AI-driven collect data once, reuse many times platform to expand share across our markets," said cofounder and CEO George Kurtz, boasting about the execution of CrowdStrike's Falcon platform. "We remain steadfast in our vision to grow ending ARR to $5 billion by the end of fiscal year 2026 and to reach our target operating model sometime within fiscal year 2025."

For the first quarter, management guided for $0.50 in adjusted EPS on revenue ranging from $675 million to $678 million.

For fiscal 2024, which began in February, management forecasts revenue between $2.955 billion and $3.014 billion and adjusted EPS ranging from $2.21 to $2.39. Meeting this guidance would require plenty of growth in the back half of the year. Revenue at the midpoint of the forecast would need to grow 33% YoY, and adjusted EPS would need to grow 49% YoY at the midpoint.

A host of analysts raised their 12-month price targets on CrowdStrike. BMO Capital raised its price target on CrowdStrike stock from $120 to $152. Citi raised its price target on CRWD stock from $145 to $155, and Barclays raised its price target from $155 to $165.

CrowdStrike stock forecast

Back on February 15, CrowdStrike broke above the descending top trendline that had held down CRWD's share price since August 2022. With that six-month barrier behind it, CRWD stock has been telling us that a rally is in the works. With the earnings spike, CrowdStrike stock broke above the $130 barrier and now poses danger to $137. That price was employed as support back in November of last year and also was the last price before the gap down from the earnings miss on November 30, 2022. The next resistance price level of $150 was the major point of resistance that same month. If Chairman Powell makes waves in his House testimony on Wednesday, expect CRWD to find support at $120.50.

CRWD 1-day chart