CrowdStrike (CRWD) Reports a Beat-and-Raise Quarter, Strong Execution Outweighs Premium Valuation Says Analyst
CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings and raised its full-year guidance to send its shares modestly higher in pre-open Friday.
The company made a profit of $0.10 per share to top the $0.04 per share expected from market analysts while sales soared 70% to $302.8 million.
“CrowdStrike kicked off the new fiscal year with strong momentum and delivered outstanding first quarter results that exceeded our expectations. We saw strength in multiple areas of the business, added $144 million in net new ARR in the quarter and grew ending ARR 74% year-over-year to exceed $1.19 billion. The CrowdStrike name has become synonymous with best-in-class cybersecurity protection and a platform that just works,” says George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s co-founder and chief executive officer.
“Customers of all sizes are increasingly choosing CrowdStrike as their security platform of record with 1,524 net new subscription customers added in the quarter and half of total subscription customers now adopting at least five cloud modules. We believe the robust demand environment driven by secular trends, such as digital and security transformation, cloud adoption and a heightened threat environment, provides a runway for long-term sustainable growth.”
Mizuho’s Gregg Moskowitz says we witnessed “another strong quarter” for CRWD. He reiterated a “Buy” rating and hiked the price target to $255.00 per share from $250.00 per share as CRWD “remains one of our top picks,” he notes.
“CRWD again reported very good F1Q results, led by ARR growth of 74% Y/Y that significantly beat our 66% target and the Street's 67% estimate. In addition, CRWD added another record quarter of net new logos, and the co. meaningfully raised its FY22 outlook. Despite its premium valuation, we believe strong execution will propel CRWD's stock higher,” Moskowitz said in a note.
DA Davidson analyst Andrew Nowinski also raised the price target to $275.00 per share from $250.00 per share on the Buy-rated CRWD.
“Crowdstrike reported another strong quarter, highlighted by $144M in net new ARR, which was up sequentially in what is normally a seasonally softer quarter. The company continues to gain share at the expense of both legacy and next-gen vendors, while also seeing strong early adoption of new products such as Humio in the log management market. We remain convinced Crowdstrike is well-positioned to easily generate $3B in ARR by 2025, and we continue to recommend CRWD as a top pick,” Nowinski wrote in a memo.