Cybersecurity company beats on quarterly earnings, but annual forecast for adjusted profit lands on low end of Wall Street’s expectations
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. shares fell in the extended session Wednesday after the cybersecurity company’s forecast failed to wow Wall Street.
CrowdStrike shares dropped more than 11% after hours, following a 1% rise in the regular session to close at $160.13. The software company’s executives forecast adjusted fiscal second-quarter earnings of 54 cents to 57 cents a share on revenue of $717.2 million to $727.4 million, while analysts forecast earnings of 55 cents a share on revenue of $718.6 million, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.
For the year, the company forecast an adjusted-earnings range of $2.32 to $2.43 a share on revenue of $3 billion to $3.04 billion. Wall Street analysts on average expected $2.33 a share on revenue of $3 billion, according to FactSet.
CrowdStrike reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $491,000, or less than a penny a share, compared with a loss of $31.5 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted net income, which excludes stock-based compensation and other items, was 57 cents a share, compared with 31 cents a share in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $692.6 million from $487.8 million in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts expected CrowdStrike to report earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $677.4 million, based on the company’s outlook of 50 cents to 51 cents a share on revenue of $674.9 million to $678.2 million.
Annual recurring revenue, or ARR, a software-as-a-service metric that shows how much revenue the company can expect based on subscriptions, grew 42% to $2.73 billion from the year-ago quarter.
As of Wednesday’s close, CrowdStrike’s stock is up 52% year to date, compared with a 9% rise by the S&P 500 index, and a 24% gain for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index.