CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) Shares Down 9.8% Following Analyst Downgrade

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD)’s stock price dropped 9.8% during trading on Monday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $600.00 to $480.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. CrowdStrike traded as low as $342.72 and last traded at $350.33. Approximately 15,003,649 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 318% from the average daily volume of 3,588,301 shares. The stock had previously closed at $388.60.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on CrowdStrike from $540.00 to $490.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on CrowdStrike from $560.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $580.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of CrowdStrike from $417.00 to $446.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group increased their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $530.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Thirty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $546.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Anurag Saha sold 836 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $476.83, for a total value of $398,629.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 43,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,849,868.58. This trade represents a 1.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Johanna Flower sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $461.94, for a total value of $1,385,820.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 76,082 shares in the company, valued at $35,145,319.08. The trade was a 3.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 100,247 shares of company stock valued at $45,722,274. 3.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting CrowdStrike

Here are the key news stories impacting CrowdStrike this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Recent operating fundamentals and growth remain solid: CrowdStrike reported strong revenue growth (Q3 revenue +22% YoY) and continued cash generation, which underpins the longer-term thesis for the Falcon platform. Is CrowdStrike Stock a Buy After Falling 17% Year to Date?
• Positive Sentiment: Partnerships and channel momentum (Microsoft, Qualtrics and others) are cited as catalysts to expand Falcon’s reach and drive next-phase growth, helping offset short‑term headline risk. Can Strategic Partnerships Drive CrowdStrike’s Next Growth Phase?
• Positive Sentiment: Several bulls call the selloff an overreaction (“ghost trade”) and see buying opportunities; high‑profile analysts and investors still view CRWD as a leader in endpoint/cloud security. ‘AI Ghost Trade’ Fears Slam CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Stock — But Dan Ives Sees Winners
• Neutral Sentiment: Stifel lowered its price target (from $600 to $480) but kept a Buy rating — a sign of continued analyst support, but also that some upside expectations have been trimmed. Stifel Adjusts Price Target on CrowdStrike to $480 from $600, Maintains Buy Rating
• Negative Sentiment: Anthropic’s Claude Code Security launch directly triggered a broad selloff in cybersecurity names as investors reassess whether AI tools could replace or commoditize parts of incumbent vendors’ offerings. CrowdStrike, Datadog and other cybersecurity stocks slide after Anthropic’s AI tool launch
• Negative Sentiment: News coverage and market chatter widened fears (second‑day drops reported) that AI could disrupt security workflows and pricing, pressuring sentiment and driving indiscriminate selling. Cybersecurity stocks drop for a second day as new Anthropic tool fuels AI disruption fears
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst and media coverage is framing the move as a rapid, sentiment‑driven plunge (multiple headlines cite consecutive days of declines), which can amplify volatility even if fundamentals remain intact. Why CrowdStrike Plunged For the Second Day In A Row

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CrowdStrike

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRWD. Advyzon Investment Management LLC increased its stake in CrowdStrike by 142.9% during the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 906 shares of the company’s stock worth $461,000 after acquiring an additional 533 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 22,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,083,000 after acquiring an additional 1,428 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated grew its holdings in shares of CrowdStrike by 394.8% during the 3rd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 2,954 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,449,000 after purchasing an additional 2,357 shares in the last quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 10.9% in the third quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,117 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,205 shares during the period. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 7.3% in the third quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 22,253 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,912,000 after purchasing an additional 1,512 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.16% of the company’s stock.

CrowdStrike Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $447.71 and a 200 day moving average of $471.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $88.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -278.04, a P/E/G ratio of 21.86 and a beta of 1.03.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. CrowdStrike had a negative net margin of 6.88% and a negative return on equity of 2.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that CrowdStrike will post 0.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CrowdStrike Company Profile

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.