Wolfe Research Upgrades CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) to Outperform

Key Points

• Wolfe Research upgraded CrowdStrike to "Outperform" and set a $450 price target, implying about 21.76% upside from the prior close.
• CrowdStrike slightly beat quarterly EPS estimates and reported revenue up 23.8% year-over-year, though it remains unprofitable (negative net margin); analysts hold a Moderate Buy consensus with an average price target of $505.08.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wolfe Research from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a $450.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research's price objective points to a potential upside of 21.76% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of CrowdStrike in a report on Monday, January 12th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $575.00 to $475.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Stephens increased their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $465.00 to $490.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $425.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $564.00 to $500.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have given a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $505.08.

CrowdStrike Stock Performance

CRWD stock opened at $369.58 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $93.73 billion, a PE ratio of -499.43, a P/E/G ratio of 16.21 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day moving average of $417.65 and a 200-day moving average of $469.03. CrowdStrike has a 12-month low of $298.00 and a 12-month high of $566.90.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The company reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. CrowdStrike had a negative return on equity of 0.14% and a negative net margin of 3.81%.CrowdStrike's quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CrowdStrike will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CrowdStrike news, CEO George Kurtz sold 31,915 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.88, for a total transaction of $13,145,150.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,162,415 shares of the company's stock, valued at $890,655,490.20. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Anurag Saha sold 1,138 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.06, for a total value of $467,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 42,588 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,506,223.28. The trade was a 2.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 116,469 shares of company stock worth $48,369,351 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.32% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CrowdStrike

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Asset Planning Inc bought a new stake in CrowdStrike during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in CrowdStrike in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of CrowdStrike during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Logan Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CrowdStrike during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new position in shares of CrowdStrike in the second quarter worth $27,000. 71.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc NASDAQ: CRWD is a cybersecurity company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The firm was co-founded by George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch and became a publicly traded company following its initial public offering in 2019. CrowdStrike positions itself as a provider of cloud-native security solutions designed to protect endpoints, cloud workloads, identities and data against sophisticated cyber threats.

The company's core offering is the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, a modular, cloud-delivered security architecture that combines endpoint protection (EPP), endpoint detection and response (EDR), threat intelligence, and device control through lightweight agents and centralized telemetry.

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