CrowdStrike Results Show 'Cyber Remains Immune' to Macro Headwinds, Analysts Say

© Reuters. CrowdStrike (CRWD) Results Show 'Cyber Remains Immune' to Macro Headwinds, Analysts Say

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Shares of CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) are up over 1% in premarket Wednesday trading after the company reported Q2 results and issued guidance.

CRWD reported an adjusted EPS of $0.36 that beat the consensus estimate of $0.28. Revenue soared 58% year-over-year to $535.2 million, again easily better than the consensus estimate of $515.98 million.

“CrowdStrike delivered a strong second quarter with new milestones across the business. Ending ARR surpassed the $2 billion milestone, net new ARR reached a record $218 million and net new subscription customers reached a record 1,741 in the quarter,” said George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s co-founder and CEO.

For this quarter, EPS is seen in the range of $0.30 - $0.32, better than the consensus of $0.28. Revenue is seen between $569.1 million and $575.9 million, while analysts were looking for $568.6 million.

For the full year 2023, the cybersecurity company expects EPS in the range of $1.31 to $1.33, ahead of the consensus of $1.20. Similarly, revenue is expected in the range of $2.223 billion to $2.232 billion, compared to the consensus of $2.2 billion.

“We are raising our guidance for fiscal year 2023, which reflects our technology advantage and strong industry tailwinds combined with a pragmatic view of current macroeconomic conditions,” CFO Burt Podbere said in the statement.

A Morgan Stanley analyst hiked the price target by $2 to $217 on strong results.

“Strong broader platform upsell drove record net new ARR and +59% total ARR growth in FQ2, ahead of consensus/buyside expectations. Despite the record pipeline, forward rev outlook is a bit more conservative on macro, so estimates move up modestly but with plenty of cushion for further beat/raise,” the analyst told clients in a note.

A Stifel analyst also hiked the price target as he went to $225 from $220 as CRWD shows it is “much more than” just about endpoint security solutions.

“Q2 results reinforced our confidence in the growing customer demand for not only consolidating endpoint security with CrowdStrike, but also extending deployments to nontraditional workloads,” The Stifel analyst said in a note.

For Jefferies analysts, CRWD results showed the company is resilient to this environment.

“CRWD did note an uptick in deal cycle time given extra scrutiny from customers due to macro concerns,” they wrote in a note.