UPDATE: CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) PT Lowered to $180 at Morgan Stanley as High Expectations Meet Increasing Competition

Morgan Stanley analyst Hamza Fodderwala lowered the price target on CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ: CRWD) to $180.00 (from $197.00) after seeing signs of increasing competition.

The analyst reiterated an Underweight rating, stating "Given the backdrop of rising cyber threats and recent geopolitical tensions, investor expectations are likely higher on security demand overall, including CRWD in
particular. However, near term fundamentals are likely unchanged by these events and shouldn’t be reflected in the forward outlook either. Our FQ4 checks still point to a favorable but consistent demand environment for CrowdStrike, with 61% of resellers above plan in Q4, inline with last quarter. Endpoint protection also remains a top 3 security priority for 2022 in our CIO survey. At the same time, we are picking up signs of rising competition and at least a modest uptick in discounting in competitive situations, primarily against S/MSFT. Incremental deal sizes are also generally lower on average as CRWD pushes further down market. Overall, we think this dynamic sets up unfavorably for the upcoming Wed print. We see more limited upside to consensus ARR estimates, which likely falls short of higher investor expectations."

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