CrowdStrike shares fall as 'Mythos moment' fails to cheer investors

By Akriti Shah and Jaspreet ‌Singh

June 4 (Reuters) - CrowdStrike ​shares ​slid 7% on Thursday after the company's quarterly forecasts failed to meet steep investor expectations, even though demand for cybersecurity software was buoyed ‌after Anthropic announced its Mythos AI model.

If the losses persist, the ⁠cybersecurity firm's market valuation of nearly $190 billion would shrink by $13 billion.

Some analysts attributed the selloff to ‌profit-taking by investors as CrowdStrike ‌shares have soared about 90% since the company's last earnings report in March. As of Wednesday's close, the stock had gained nearly 60% this year.

CrowdStrike, like ​its peers such as Palo Alto Networks, has benefited from strong demand for its AI-powered cybersecurity software, as enterprises look to secure their systems from ⁠attackers using technology to steal data.

"What the Mythos moment proved is that the world starting from the frontier ​AI labs themselves realized that AI needs a cybersecurity ecosystem," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told analysts on a post-earnings call on Wednesday.

His ​comments mirrored those by industry rivals. But ‌analysts say investors sought even stronger growth as Kurtz touted "a deluge of customer, prospect and partner inquiries" following the April launch ⁠of Anthropic's Project Glasswing, in an effort to secure critical software using Mythos.

"Post-Mythos threat landscape readiness reached a fever pitch with the primary question being — Is my organization protected?" Kurtz ⁠said. Investor sentiment, once clouded with fears of AI tools disrupting demand for security tools, has ​shifted to those models being a critical catalyst for demand.

Netskope shares slumped 16.3% while those of Palo Alto fell 3.3%.

CrowdStrike shares traded at 137.74 times their estimated earnings for the next ‌12 months, compared with 68.91 times for Palo Alto, according to LSEG-compiled data.

Following the results, at least 22 brokerages have ‌raised price targets on the stock and one has cut.

"While near-term expectations may have been ⁠a bit elevated following the ‌recent rally, we continue to ​see room for further multiple expansion," Morgan Stanley analysts said.

(Reporting by Akriti Shah, Siddarth S and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Joyjeet Das)

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