AUSTIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fal.Con 2025, Las Vegas -- CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today, in partnership with Meta, introduced a new suite of benchmarks – CyberSOCEval – for evaluating how AI systems perform in real-world security operations. Built on Meta's CyberSecEval framework and CrowdStrike's leading threat intelligence and cybersecurity AI data expertise, this suite of open source benchmarks helps establish a new framework for testing, selecting, and leveraging large language models (LLMs) i. ...

Core Insights - CrowdStrike announced results from an independent study by Canalys, indicating that partners can generate up to $7 in services revenue for every $1 spent by customers on the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform [1] Group 1 - The study highlights the strongest cybersecurity partner ecosystem multiplier on record, showcasing the significant impact of the Falcon platform [1] - The findings emphasize the generational ecosystem significance of the Falcon platform in the cybersecurity industry [1]

Core Insights - The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the U.S. economy is creating significant changes in the labor market, with some businesses leveraging AI for cost reduction and efficiency, while others face potential job displacement [1] Group 1: Company Analysis - Snowflake Inc. is positioned well due to its focus on data privacy, with a 12-month stock price forecast of $255.53, indicating a 15.53% upside from the current price of $221.17 [3][5] - Intuitive Surgical Inc. benefits from a regulatory moat that requires human oversight in its robotic-assisted surgery platforms, with a 12-month stock price forecast of $595.95, suggesting a 32.53% upside from the current price of $449.68 [6][9] - CrowdStrike is essential in cybersecurity, relying on human-supervised systems for threat detection, with a 12-month stock price forecast of $460.10, indicating a 5.50% upside from the current price of $436.10 [10][12] Group 2: Market Sentiment - Analyst sentiment for Snowflake is positive, with a consensus Moderate Buy rating and a price target range from $190.00 to $285.00 [5] - Intuitive Surgical has a consensus Moderate Buy rating, with analysts recognizing the company's regulatory advantages and potential for growth [8][9] - CrowdStrike has seen increased institutional interest, with a notable 29.4% stake increase by Vident Advisory, reflecting confidence in the company's future [11]

Industry Overview - Cybersecurity threats are increasing globally, necessitating businesses to allocate budgets for defense, with IDC estimating cybersecurity spending to reach $377 billion by 2028 [2] - The rise of AI-based attacks complicates the defense of critical software and infrastructure [2] Company Insights Palo Alto Networks - Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of CyberArk for $25 billion, enhancing its identity and access management capabilities, expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2026 [5] - The company reported Q4 revenue of $2.54 billion, surpassing estimates of $2.5 billion, with earnings of $0.95 exceeding expectations of $0.88 [6] - Management provided strong guidance for 2026, projecting a 14% revenue increase to approximately $10.5 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share to rise 14% to $3.80 [6] - The founder and CTO, Nir Zuk, is retiring, but CEO Nikesh Arora continues to lead the company [7] CrowdStrike - CrowdStrike offers a comprehensive security solution through its Falcon platform, integrating AI features that save customers an average of 40 hours per week [9] - The company reported Q2 earnings per share of $0.93, above the consensus estimate of $0.83, while revenue increased by 21% to nearly $1.2 billion [10] - Despite a slight dip in share price following management's Q3 revenue estimate of $1.21 to $1.22 billion, which is below Wall Street's estimate, the company remains on track to achieve $10 billion in annual recurring revenue by 2031 [11][12] Microsoft - Microsoft has established itself as a leader in AI through its partnership with OpenAI, integrating advanced AI into its Azure and Windows 365 platforms [13] - The company has a growing cybersecurity business with 1.4 million customers and 34,000 engineers dedicated to security, with cybersecurity sales projected to reach $37 billion in fiscal 2025, accounting for about 14% of total revenue [14] - With a recent stock slide of about 3%, now is considered a favorable time to invest in Microsoft as it continues to excel in AI and cybersecurity markets [15]

Core Viewpoint - Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. is considered one of the best long-term tech stocks to buy, with a strong performance marked by a 71% gain over the past year and a 'Buy' rating from Truist Securities with a $500 price target [1][2]. Group 1: Company Performance and Outlook - Truist Securities remains optimistic about Crowdstrike's growth prospects, particularly in the second half of the year, driven by an acceleration in net new annual recurring revenue [2]. - The company aims to achieve $10 billion in total annual recurring revenue by 2031 and is open to mergers and acquisitions to unlock new growth opportunities [3]. Group 2: Business Model and Services - Crowdstrike is a global cybersecurity company that provides cloud-delivered protection for endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data through its AI-powered Falcon platform [4]. - The company focuses on preventing cyberattacks and breaches by integrating data across enterprises and offering various cloud modules via a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model [4].

Group 1: Core Insights - CrowdStrike (CRWD) is leveraging Charlotte AI as a competitive advantage in automated cybersecurity, with usage growing 85% in Q2 of fiscal 2026 compared to the previous quarter [1][10] - Charlotte AI functions as a virtual Security Operations Centre (SOC) analyst, significantly reducing task completion time from four days to one hour [2][10] - The integration of Charlotte AI into the Falcon platform enhances its capabilities through continuous learning from threat intelligence and SOC data [3] Group 2: Customer Adoption and Financial Impact - The adoption of Charlotte AI is linked to new customer contracts, including an eight-figure re-Flex deal with a Fortune 500 software company to modernize its SOC [4][10] - Charlotte AI is contributing to CrowdStrike's ability to secure larger contracts, indicating its potential role in the company's growth narrative [5] - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CrowdStrike's fiscal 2026 revenues is projected at $4.78 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 20.9% [5] Group 3: Competitive Landscape - Competitors like Palo Alto Networks (PANW) and SentinelOne (S) are also expanding their platforms and innovating with AI, with PANW's Next-Gen Security ARR growing 32% year-over-year [6] - SentinelOne reported a 24% year-over-year growth in its ARR, driven by the adoption of its AI-first Singularity platform [7] Group 4: Valuation and Performance - CrowdStrike's shares have increased by 26.6% year-to-date, outperforming the security industry's growth of 11.7% [8] - The company trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 19.76X, significantly higher than the industry's average of 12.35X [12] - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CrowdStrike's fiscal 2026 earnings indicates a year-over-year decline of 6.6%, while fiscal 2027 earnings are expected to grow by 29% [15]

Core Insights - CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) stock has experienced a decline of approximately 16% since reaching an all-time high in July, indicating it is nearing correction territory, which may present a better entry point for investors [3] - The company recently acquired Onum for $290 million, aiming to enhance its Falcon cybersecurity platform by addressing inefficiencies in data movement and improving real-time data processing capabilities [4][5] - Analyst sentiment is mixed following the acquisition and the earnings report, with a 12-month price forecast averaging $460.10, indicating a potential upside of 5.10% from the current price of $437.77 [7][9] Acquisition Details - The acquisition of Onum is designed to streamline data processing, allowing for real-time integration into the Falcon platform, which reduces friction and costs for customers [5][6] - Onum's advantages include delivering up to five times more events per second than competitors, reducing data storage costs by up to 50%, and enabling incident response that is 70% faster with 40% less ingestion overhead [8] Analyst Ratings and Market Sentiment - Following the earnings report on August 27, over two dozen analysts provided ratings and price targets, with some raising their targets above the consensus of $460, while others, like Bernstein, lowered their target from $371 to $343 [9][10] - Despite the mixed sentiment, the stock has shown signs of support around $430, aligning with its 20-day simple moving average, indicating potential for a base formation [12] Technical Analysis - Technical indicators suggest that selling pressure is easing, with a bullish crossover in the MACD line potentially signaling a shift in momentum [13] - For the stock to move higher, an increase in buying volume beyond June and July sales is necessary, along with breaking resistance levels around $450 to $455 [13]

Core Insights - High-profile investors are showing bullish sentiment towards CrowdStrike Holdings, indicating potential privileged information influencing their trading decisions [1] - The options trading activity reveals a split sentiment among major traders, with 61% bullish and 33% bearish, highlighting a significant interest in the stock [2] - The expected price range for CrowdStrike Holdings over the next three months is between $135.0 and $500.0, based on the trading activity [3] Options Activity - A total of 18 options trades were identified for CrowdStrike Holdings, with one put option valued at $88,500 and 17 call options totaling $1,377,680, indicating a strong preference for calls [2] - Noteworthy options activity includes various trades with significant total trade prices, such as a bullish call trade with a total price of $136.9K for a strike price of $500.00 [9] Company Overview - CrowdStrike is a cloud-based cybersecurity firm specializing in next-generation security solutions, primarily through its Falcon platform, which provides comprehensive threat detection and response capabilities [11] - The company has received positive ratings from analysts, with an average target price of $448.6, and several analysts maintaining buy or outperform ratings with target prices ranging from $343 to $490 [13][14] Current Market Status - As of the latest trading session, CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) has a trading volume of 263,712 and a stock price of $439.66, reflecting a 1.45% increase [16] - The next earnings report for CrowdStrike is scheduled in 74 days, which may further influence investor sentiment and trading activity [16]

Group 1: Market Overview - The current market momentum is driven primarily by technology stocks, with sectors like energy beginning to participate [2][3] - The S&P 500, NASDAQ, and Dow are all reaching record highs, indicating strong market performance [2] Group 2: CrowdStrike - CrowdStrike is positioned well within the growing AI and cybersecurity market, with an addressable market projected to grow from $116 billion in 2025 to $250 billion by 2029 [5] - The company’s Falcon platform is cloud-native and scalable, catering to the increasing demand for cybersecurity as businesses migrate to the cloud [5] - CrowdStrike has consistently beaten earnings and revenue expectations since its inception, indicating strong financial performance [12] Group 3: Palantir - Palantir has shown significant growth in its commercial line of business, which has nearly doubled, while government contracting has slowed [15] - The stock recently experienced a pullback but is now above the 50-day moving average, presenting a potential entry point for traders [16] - The stock's price is currently at a critical level, with $170 identified as a key breakout point [19] Group 4: NextEra Energy - NextEra Energy is seen as a leader in the energy sector, particularly with the increasing demand for electricity from data centers and electric vehicles [25] - The stock is currently trading within a channel between $70 and $77, with a bounce expected from the lower end of this range [25] - Technical indicators suggest that a breakout above $72 could signal bullish activity, with $75 to $77 identified as resistance levels [31][33]

TimesSquare Capital Management, an equity investment management company, released its “U.S. Focus Growth Strategy” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, equities saw double-digit returns as global economic activity expanded. Growth indexes outperformed the value counterparts in the quarter. The global risk factors like Beta, Momentum, and Residual Volatility were highly rewarded, while Earnings Quality, Value, and Growth were detracted. Furt ...