Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz will speak at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live Conference held in Laguna Beach, California on October 21, 2019.
Martina Alberzi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cloud Strike Stocks fell 7% after issuing weak earnings guidance as continued pressure was shown from the global IT halt that rattled businesses in July.
The cybersecurity software provider said it expects fiscal first quarter revenue to range between 64 cents to 66 cents per share. CrowdStrike forecasts its annual revenues ranging from $3.33 to $3.45 per share. There was a shortage of $4.42, the analysts voted by LSEG.
In the fourth quarter of the fourth quarter, CrowdStrike recorded a net loss of $92.3 million (37 cents per share) against net income of $53.7 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period last year. The company also reported $21 million in costs related to accidents and $49.9 million in tax costs associated with the acquisition.
The company also expects an additional $73 million in the first quarter that arose from the July update has driven global information technology halts, grounded flights and corporate disruptions. CrowdStrike forecasts an additional $43 million cost with several trading packages offered later.
Additionally, the suspension was weighed with a free cash flow margin. CloudStrike expects it to return to more than 30% in fiscal year 2027 in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.
Many on Wall Street expect the headwinds in the July issue to fade in the new fiscal year, and Bernstein’s Peter Weed is hoping to pick up with Cloud Strike’s net retention rate in the new fiscal year.
“While FY26’s guidance marked a conservative start to the year, in our view, management expects to set a stage of returning to Beat and Rays Cadence that they saw before the halt,” writes Brian Essex of JP Morgan.
Crowdstrike’s disappointing guidance offsets a better fourth quarter outcome than expected. The company listed adjusted earnings of $1.03 per share in revenues of $1.06 billion, saying its revenues have increased by 25% over a year ago.
Founder and CEO George Kurtz called the company a “comeback story” on a conference call.
“We are extremely proud to navigate the year when customers, partners and market prospects tested cloud strikes,” he said. “Q4 presents the outcomes of our labor and gives us a strong confidence in our AI-Native, a single platform, excellent execution and accelerating market opportunities.”
Fix: Previous versions of this story had incorrect net loss numbers.
