CrowdStrike stock rises on earnings beat, outlook hike

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. shares rose in the extended session Wednesday after the cybersecurity company reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street estimates and hiked its forecast for the year.

CrowdStrike
CRWD,
-7.20%
shares rose 2% after hours, following a 7.2% drop in the regular session to close at $201.50.

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The company reported a fiscal third-quarter loss of $50.5 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a loss of $24.5 million, or 11 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted net income, which excludes stock-based compensation and other items, was 17 cents a share, compared with 8 cents a share in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose to $380.1 million from $232.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Annual recurring revenue, a software-as-a-service metric that shows how much revenue the company can expect based on subscriptions, increased 67% to $1.51 billion for the quarter.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast CrowdStrike to report earnings of 10 cents a share on revenue of $363.6 million, based on the company’s outlook of 8 cents to 10 cents a share on revenue of $358 million to $365.3 million. Analysts also had estimated ARR at $1.47 billion.

“Our outstanding results this quarter demonstrate the flywheel effect of our platform and reflect continued strong customer adoption for our core products in addition to the growing success of our newer product initiatives including identity protection, log management and cloud,” said George Kurtz, CrowdStrike co-founder and chief executive, in a statement.

CrowdStrike expects adjusted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 19 cents to 21 cents a share on revenue of $406.5 million to $412.3 million, while analysts forecast earnings of 16 cents a share on revenue of $400 million, according to FactSet.

For the year, the company raised its forecast to a range of 57 cents to 59 cents a share on revenue of about $1.43 billion, up from a previous forecast of 43 cents to 49 cents on revenue of $1.39 billion to 1.41 billion. Wall Street expects 46 cents a share on revenue of $1.4 billion.

As of Wednesday’s close, the stock is up more than 36% over the past 12 months, compared with a 23% rise on both the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.18%
and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-1.83%,
and a 17% gain by the ETFMG Prime Cyber Security ETF
HACK,
-3.38%.