CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) Trading Up 4.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) traded up 4.5% on Thursday after Zacks Research upgraded the stock from a strong sell rating to a hold rating. The company traded as high as $429.69 and last traded at $426.16. 5,906,268 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 45% from the average session volume of 4,063,195 shares. The stock had previously closed at $407.68.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on CrowdStrike from $353.00 to $368.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of CrowdStrike in a report on Wednesday. Evercore dropped their price objective on shares of CrowdStrike from $460.00 to $375.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $515.00 to $400.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of CrowdStrike in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $505.98.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurtz sold 28,853 shares of CrowdStrike stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.01, for a total value of $11,916,577.53. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,054,902 shares in the company, valued at approximately $848,695,075.02. The trade was a 1.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Anurag Saha sold 836 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 24th. The shares were 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 approximately $20,849,868.58. This trade represents a 1.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 91,947 shares of company stock worth $41,438,616. 3.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key CrowdStrike News

Here are the key news stories impacting CrowdStrike this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat expectations: revenue and EPS slightly topped estimates; ending ARR topped $5.25B and net new ARR was a record, supporting the company’s platform-led growth thesis. Guidance for FY27 was roughly in line with Street expectations, which helped sentiment. CrowdStrike Beats, But AI Concerns Persist
• Positive Sentiment: Company messaging highlights AI-native products (Falcon enhancements, identity/AI protections) and partnerships that extend its addressable market — reinforcing investor views that CrowdStrike is positioned to capture AI-driven cybersecurity spending. CrowdStrike’s Record ARR And AI Security Push Reshape Growth Story
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic win in Europe: a partnership to deliver Falcon on Schwarz Digits’ STACKIT sovereign cloud with EU data residency — helps EU public-sector and regulated-enterprise sales. CrowdStrike and Schwarz Digits Partner on STACKIT
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional interest: Baron Global Opportunity Fund increased its stake and Wells Fargo initiated/upgraded coverage (strong-buy/overweight commentary), signaling buy-side conviction following the quarter. Baron Global Opportunity Fund Increased Its Holding
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor outreach: CrowdStrike presented at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference (adds visibility but no new material guidance). CRWD Presents at Morgan Stanley TMT Conference
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest data in feeds was inconsistent/zero (likely a reporting artifact) and thus provides no clear directional signal to traders today.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts are split and many lowered price targets after the release (Citigroup, Argus, UBS, Deutsche Bank and others trimmed targets even while some kept “buy” ratings) — this mixed/trimmed estimate backdrop limits upside and suggests the Street is wrestling with valuation vs. growth. Citigroup Adjusts Price Target on CrowdStrike Argus Adjusts Price Target on CrowdStrike These Analysts Cut Their Forecasts On CrowdStrike
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing concern: some investors worry that “agentic AI” and software pricing dynamics could pressure long-term per-customer spend if AI reduces demand for multiple modules — a valuation risk for a high-multiple security vendor. CrowdStrike Beats, But AI Concerns Persist

Institutional Trading of CrowdStrike

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CRWD. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in CrowdStrike by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,216,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,351,748,000 after purchasing an additional 340,047 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,161,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,232,167,000 after buying an additional 239,428 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CrowdStrike by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,947,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,777,227,000 after acquiring an additional 137,224 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 54,635.9% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,293,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,186,714,000 after acquiring an additional 4,285,640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,271,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,002,398,000 after acquiring an additional 53,813 shares in the last quarter. 71.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CrowdStrike Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $107.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -575.88, a PEG ratio of 22.89 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business’s 50 day moving average is $432.60 and its 200-day moving average is $468.57.

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

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.