CrowdStrike (CRWD) -) shares jumped higher in early Wednesday trading after the cybersecurity group posted better-than-expected third quarter earnings paired with a solid-near term sales outlook.
CrowdStrike said current quarter revenues would likely range between $836.6 million to $840 million, nudging just ahead of Street forecasts, with annual recurring revenue (ARR), a key performance metric for tech services companies, pegged at $3.15 billion.
Investors were also impressed with the group's potential to grow revenues from small and medium-sized business through new product launches on Amazon (AMZN) -).
For the three months ending in October, CrowdStrike posted adjusted earnings of 82 cents per share, topping Street forecasts by around 8 cents, on revenues of $786 million, a tally the came in just ahead of estimates. Annual recurring revenue rose 13% from last year to a record $223 million.
"This was a standout quarter and places us well on the path to $10 billion in ARR that we outlined in our latest investor briefing," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told investors on a conference call late Tuesday.
"Adversaries continue to evolve, moving faster and increasing their use of dark AI, turning AI into a weapon for evil. At the same time, legislative and SEC regulatory oversight pressures boards and executives to prioritize cybersecurity," he added. "Our relentless focus on innovation and commitment to a single, built-by-design platform creates cybersecurity source of truth. Built on this platform foundation, our Cloud, Identity, and LogScale next-gen SIEM products are examples of IPO-worthy hypergrowth businesses."
CrowdStrike share were marked 6.8% higher in early Wednesday trading to change hands at $226.80 each, a move that would extend the stock's six-month gain to around 44% and value the Austin, Texas-based company at around $54.1 billion.
"CrowdStrike is well-positioned in terms of the F4Q24 setup, given the solid F3Q24 performance and only modestly raised revenue guidance," said JMP Securities analyst Trevor Walsh, who carried a 'market outperform' rating with a $235 price target on the stock.
"Management did not provide a new framework for ARR, but reiterated the prior comments for net-new ARR coming in flat to slightly up for the year, which is achievable at this point without any net-new ARR acceleration," he added.
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