CrowdStrike shares tumble as revenue shows signs of slowing

CrowdStrike reported first-quarter earnings results for its fiscal 2024 on Wednesday, beating consensus estimates on the top and bottom lines but sending shares down more than 11% after hours on slowing revenue growth.

Here’s how the cybersecurity firm did versus Refinitiv consensus estimates for the quarter ended in April:

• EPS: 57 cents, adjusted, versus 51 cents expected
• Revenue: $692.6 million, versus $676.4 million expected

The 42% year-over-year revenue increase was slower than the 61% growth it reported in the year-ago quarter. CrowdStrike swung to a profit of $500,000, or breakeven per share, compared with a loss of $31.5 million, or 14 cents a share, a year ago.

The company offered current quarter guidance of $717.2 million to $727.4 million, compared to a consensus range of $698 million to $742 million.

Annual recurring revenue, or ARR, was $2.73 billion for the quarter, a year-over-year increase of 42%. Net new ARR was $174.2 million for the quarter, down from $190.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

CrowdStrike offers portfolio of cloud-based cybersecurity solutions, which the company advertises as a comprehensive package for everything from corporate servers to employee laptops to Internet-of-Things, or IoT, devices.

With cross-strait tensions mounting in recent months, cybersecurity concerns have begun to command increased attention from investors and the general public. Earlier this month, Microsoft cautioned that China state-sponsored cyber attackers had infiltrated “critical” infrastructure in the continental U.S. and the U.S. territory of Guam.

The vulnerability exploited by those Chinese hackers “impacted” the U.S. Navy and a host of other organizations. CrowdStrike researchers helped assemble an NSA bulletin on the attack. Senior government officials have emphasized that healthy public-private partnerships are crucial to understanding and defending against cybersecurity threats.

Cyber concerns have also been a growing priority for the Department of Justice, which has been involved in a number of so-called “darkweb” enforcement operations across the last few months.

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