CrowdStrike's Resilience And Cyber Defense Capabilities Seen as Long-Term Growth Catalysts: Analyst

Piper Sandler analyst Rob D. Owens upgraded the CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc CRWD rating to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $290, down from $310.

Owens noted that CrowdStrike remains the dominant player in the all-important endpoint space and is one of the better ways to play broader consolidation trends in cyber.

While the outage event was unfortunate, it underscores how vulnerable systems are given the interconnected and digital infrastructures, the analyst said.

Also Read: CrowdStrike Faces Downgrades Amid Concerns Over Pricing and Renewals Following Disruption

Historically, outages and breaches have had modest impacts on cyber business fundamentals, but the scale of the CrowdStrike-caused outage is unprecedented, the analyst flagged.

Owens said that even though the near-term news cycle will likely revolve around litigation, congressional testimony, and ensuing number cuts ahead of and on second-quarter earnings, the event’s ramifications will likely be more short-lived and of negligible cost.

This should be a call towards better resiliency and cyber defense capabilities in the long run.

With shares down sharply for the month, Owens noted investors should opportunistically build positions at current levels. The analyst moderated numbers in the wake of the event.

Owens expects second-quarter revenue and EPS of $960.3 million and $0.99. Owens projected fiscal 2025 revenue and EPS of $3.96 billion (prior $4.01 billion) and $3.85 (prior $4.03).

The analyst forecasts fiscal 2026 revenue and EPS of $4.77 billion (prior $5.03 billion) and $4.48 (prior $5.01).

CrowdStrike stock is up over 51% in the last 12 months despite plunging 42% in the last 30 days.

Price Action: CRWD stock traded higher by 5.02% at $233.20 at the last check Tuesday.

Also Read:

• Goldman Sachs Analyst Stays Course On CrowdStrike Despite Outage, Expects Strong Company Reputation To Aid Recovery

Photo via Shutterstock